tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20256246720249162972024-03-13T10:52:33.960-05:00Joie Des Livres - Book ReviewsTesthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-57664750689082223572016-09-16T17:04:00.000-05:002016-09-16T17:06:16.962-05:00Book Review: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Chronicle-of-a-Death-Foretold/9781400034710?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMP15Zzkt9Af-GIPhxKIQofVCX4XN3ONEygMr_LT20xL0dXP26xVn00YUcopH2TYncmJnIBbtXT3zza0h9FFQckIk80ptIiSBaO9tLez0jKm9XVFqijJ06i8CNUfbjChYAD7FLIxcX0Ck/s200/Cronica.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have a complicated relationship with Gabriel García Márquez. Complicated as in I always hated the man because my high school teachers thought it was acceptable to make me put down books that I actually wanted to read to read his bibliography instead. And then they would test us on it, as if the reading part wasn’t torture enough!
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I remember buying Of Love and Other Demons in 10th grade. I remember we had to pair up for the test. I remember the brilliant idea that my friend and I had to tackle that monster of a novel that wasn’t even 200 pages long: we would each read half! I’d read the first half, she’d read the rest and we’d both ace that test! Easy.
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It didn’t quite work. My hatred deepened.
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Fast forward a long (long, long… I am old) time and here I am, bemoaning the fact that I never gave Latin American authors a chance. I really haven’t been kind to my people and it’s a shame because if I don’t, how could I expect others to do it? So I decided to start with the bane of my teenage existence, and you know what? Teenage me was an idiot. Gabriel García Márquez is magical and I am so here for it!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Chronicle of a Death Foretold tells the story of a man who’s going to be murdered and, unlike everyone else in town, he has no idea. After being returned to her family hours after her wedding, Angela Vicario confesses that she had actually lost her virginity way back to another man in town, Santiago Nasar. In a rage, her brothers, twins Pablo and Pedro Vicario, rush to get their knives and go into town announcing their intentions to kill Santiago in defense of their sister’s honor. 27 years later, one of Santiago’s old friends returns to the town determined to get to the bottom and make sense of the baffling murder, because if everyone knew what was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it?
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This book reminds me a tiny little bit of The Virgin Suicides in the way that from the title alone you know what’s gonna happen, leaving the author with the great task of keeping you interested and engaged long enough to find out the hows and the whys. Where the death of the Lisbon girls differs from the death of Santiago Nasar is that the hows and whys are already known in this novella. They were so widely known, in fact, that the murder shouldn’t have happened at all, and yet…
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I finished this book feeling sad and frustrated over a fictional character’s death that was so preventable, yet no one did anything to stop it. García Márquez explores a very curious affliction that plagues our society and that we have all been guilty of at some point or another: inaction. Most of the town knew what the Vicario twins were planning to do but no one told the victim; whether it was because they thought the twins were bluffing, they didn’t like him and wouldn’t care if he died, or simply because they thought, for sure, someone else had already warned him, no one felt the need to make sure he knew, and quite frankly, that’s because they didn’t care; it wouldn’t affect them personally so it wasn’t important, and what if they didn’t do anything? Someone else probably would!
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Yeah, not quite. Bystander effect. Google it.
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Besides making me feel terrible on behalf of all human beings who have had a chance to speak up and act and haven’t, I have nothing bad to say about this book. From the plot, to the characters, to the narrative, Chronicle of a Death Foretold was perfect from start to finish and made me realize how wrong I was to think reading Gabriel García Márquez was torture.
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I particularly enjoyed the way he chose to tell this story in a non-chronological order and from numerous points of view as the narrator goes around town asking questions and trying to unearth the truth. Whether he succeeds or not is entirely subjective, but it does give us the opportunity to bring this town and its inhabitants to life. The more I read, the more it felt like I was there in the middle of it all-- looking out the window next to Santiago’s mom and witnessing the awful events--and that I knew these people, could picture them just as vividly as recalling an old classmate or a neighbor. He is such a powerful storyteller! And there’s no better proof of that than when he shocks you with an ending you have seen coming since the very first page. The last scene alone cemented this book as a lifetime favorite and I will forever regret not picking up one of his books sooner!
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So, don’t be a dummy like my teenage self. If you have yet to read Gabriel García Márquez, I 100% recommend Chronicle of a Death Foretold. If you have, then I don’t have to convince you to pick this one up (if you haven’t already!). Now if y’all excuse me, I have a copy of Love and Other Demons waiting for me on my bedside table. I hope to make my 10th grade teacher proud once I read that second half!
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iBWZzg49odc/VhbEWr9onXI/AAAAAAAAATc/kd8AsRXQYkY/s200/five-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-57865289351727479462016-08-09T09:58:00.000-05:002016-09-16T17:00:27.486-05:00BLOG TOUR: THE JUMP BY DOUG JOHNSTONE; REVIEW + GIVEAWAY!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gSaj0e7X0kH2OrtPSw-bZGgofnGRRszojIeFg-4yCgp0nEKjzVUXnrCQtQMrin6Y_pE3ygdljSDp2GsvbTOYpIwWcrp6I2bPAwKGfvjxsJBAE_itdLgwaT-dJZ29MF9qjwGTvB6_UP4/s1600/IMG_7012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gSaj0e7X0kH2OrtPSw-bZGgofnGRRszojIeFg-4yCgp0nEKjzVUXnrCQtQMrin6Y_pE3ygdljSDp2GsvbTOYpIwWcrp6I2bPAwKGfvjxsJBAE_itdLgwaT-dJZ29MF9qjwGTvB6_UP4/s200/IMG_7012.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What if you got a second chance?
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<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her teenage son, Ellie lives in the shadows of the Forth Road Bridge, lingering on its footpaths and swimming in the waters below. One day she talks down another suicidal teenager, Sam, and sees for herself a shot at redemption, the chance to atone for her son's death. But even with the best intentions, she can't foresee the situation she's falling headlong into — a troubled family, with some very dark secrets of their own. </i><br />
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The Jump is a hugely moving contemporary thriller, and a stunning portrait of an unlikely heroine. </i></span><br />
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The thing about books who touch up on very sensitive topics is that they can either do it very well, or they can go awfully wrong. Thankfully, The Jump falls into the former category, letting us catch a glimpse of the unimaginable-- how a parent deals with the loss of a child gone too soon--, in a way that is tactful, yet still heartbreaking. Doug Johnstone takes it a step further by adding a good dose of mystery to the mix without losing focus of the emotional side of the story.
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Part family drama, part crime mystery, The Jump will have your head spinning as events unfold and the plot unravels into a climax that you probably won’t be expecting. The mystery isn’t particularly mysterious and it won’t have you turning pages trying to figure out what happened, but more it’ll have you wondering why it happened and desperate to see what else these people (especially Ellie) are willing to do to protect those they have come to care about. Y’all know how particular I am about endings, but this one stuck and I closed the book feeling some sort of vindication and satisfaction at the way things wrapped up.
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I do think this novel requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, especially if you're like me and like your real drama to be... realistic (for lack of a better word) because there were some situations some of the characters (Ellie… again) got into that, to me, seemed a little farfetched and that probably wouldn't have gone over so well in the real world. I can't go too much into detail without spoiling something, but if you read/have read the book, let's talk!
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If I have any gripes about this book, it’s the writing. It’s not bad and it makes the book very easy and quick to read, but I personally don’t like when there are paragraphs upon paragraphs built with short sentences because all the starts and stops make it feel very fragmented. It was particularly jarring whenever the author would go on about the scenery, trying to set the scene, because it made it sound very clinical and dull at times.
<br /><br />I cannot finish this review without going a little bit more into depth about Ellie. Like I mentioned before, losing a child has to be the worst pain a person can go through, the magnitude of which I can’t even begin to comprehend, so while I understood on a very logical level the grief Ellie was dealing with, I really could not sympathize with her and had a hard time understanding the reasoning behind her actions and choices. Because of my lack of understanding, I will refrain from talking about she irked me and instead will bring up the one thing that really broke my heart for her.
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Throughout this whole ordeal of losing a child and feeling like life had given her a second chance by putting her in Sam’s path, Ellie had no support system. At no point was there mention of concerned friends or family trying to help her with her grief. The only person there for her was her husband and while I loved their relationship and the fact that they were trying to work through the pain together, he was dealing with his own grief and was in no position to be the one to get her to the other side. It was this loneliness, this feeling of dealing with something so big with no one around to lift you up when you feel like you can’t go on anymore, that struck me the most and made me very emotional.
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For that alone I would recommend this book. It’s a great character study that addresses very serious and delicate subjects in a very tactful way, while also being a gripping read that you can</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> get through in just one sitting! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And now, for some blog tour fun! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1) I had the pleasure to have The Jump's author Doug Johnstone write a special guest post for this blog! <a href="http://www.joiedeslivres.com/p/giving-birth-or-splitting-up-by-dough.html">Head on over to read his thoughts about what it feels like to be an author on publication day! </a> </span><a href="http://www.joiedeslivres.com/p/giving-birth-or-splitting-up-by-dough.html" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><i><b>Giving Birth or Splitting Up?</b></i></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2) You can be 1 of 5 lucky winners of a copy of The Jump by entering this giveaway! Just follow the instructions below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a class="rcptr" data-raflid="5990d01e1" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/5990d01e1/" id="rcwidget_fhcl6wyo" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good luck!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank Faber & Faber for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)</span></i></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-19935247159359902642016-07-18T13:04:00.000-05:002016-07-18T13:04:58.817-05:00Book Review: The Girls by Emma Cline<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Girls-Emm-Cline/9781784740443?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBjUvigxSTUwD8dRF2s4O_3fJ1MQSWsM4C7rEhIR49Z7JkITKLIeZAtyxVt5lhW9e40EslYNupS0kbYvEXKBuxfBXiRSyJhxNOhlnBOCCQ_2A9-0C_5XTA0lAAECDbsPqObRtta_ws_K4/s200/thegirls1.png" width="200" height="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another super hyped-up book, another disappointment. If this keeps happening, I will never trust publishers ever again!
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Beware: this is a very ranty review.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In The Girls, we meet Evie, both in present time and in 1969 as she recounts the story of how, as a 14-year-old dealing with a broken family, broken friendships and a broken heart, she ended up joining a cult led by a man named Russell and almost became involved in the gruesome crime he orchestrated.
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I try to never write overly negative reviews because that’s rarely constructive and brings nothing to the conversation, but some books deserve it. This book deserves it, or rather, the whole team behind the making and advertising of this book deserve it. Don’t sell a book as a “thriller/mystery based on the Manson murders” when there is nothing remotely thrilling or mysterious about it, when the focus of your book is teenage girls and their roles and struggles in society, and when the main character is not even present when the crime in question is committed.
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Yes, I understand this book is not about the crime or even the cult and its leader, it’s about <i>the girls</i>, but even that premise falls flat when the author’s explanation to why all these girls ended up in a cult is because 1) they weren’t getting enough attention, and 2) this man was highly persuasive and preyed on their insecurity. While this is all very valid and Emma Cline does make some compelling comments about the way women are conditioned to want attention (especially from men) and do anything to get it, the story loses its power when all the author does is tell you these things instead of showing you.
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I had a hard time believing the story, especially after reading the source material. Have you read <a href="http://www.joiedeslivres.com/2015/11/review-helter-skelter-true-story-of.html">Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi</a>? Then don’t bother with The Girls because it basically reads like Evie picked up Helter Skelter and decided to retell the story inserting herself into the narrative, turning it into a typical coming of age story that uses a highly sensationalized case as a background to garner attention. This book fails to give insight on what draws and keeps people involved in cults and the author makes the assumption that the reader is familiar with the Manson case to the point where the development of certain characters (Manson’s fictional counterpart, Russell, for example) is really lacking. At no point did his behavior felt good or strong enough to uphold his reputation. You’re just supposed to assume he’s persuasive and all these other things because other characters say so and, again, because Charles Manson was known to be a very charming and persuasive man.
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At its core, this story had a good premise and I enjoyed and sometimes even related to Cline’s insightful commentary on girls and women, the oppression we feel, the way we are taught to be and later get shamed about, and I would have loved to read more about her opinions and point of view on this matter. But the moment she decided to set it against such a dark and twisted background, relied at least 85% on that background to sell the story, then completely dismissed said background as unimportant and not the point? That’s when it all stopped working for me. It all reminds me of clickbait titles on YouTube videos. The cult was clickbait and I’m upset I fell for it.
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And don’t even get me started on the writing. It reminds me of how annoyed I was by <a href="http://www.joiedeslivres.com/2015/12/review-fates-and-furies-by-lauren-groff.html">Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies</a>. Since when did “literary” start meaning pretentious and over the top? I know most people I know have enjoyed her writing style, but for me it was just a headache, very fragmented and try-too-hard. The only thing I can commend her for, writing-wise, is that she’s very good at setting the scene and painting a picture of what the 60s might have been like, but even that fails to be a saving grace when she neglects her characters and their development, making it hard for me to connect with them or care about what they were going through.
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Suffice to say, this book fell flat to me. I don’t think I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t dissuade anyone from reading it, especially if they find the premise intriguing. Far be it from me to ever dictate what someone should and shouldn’t read!
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nmITrkwdpHA/VhbEYWtq-bI/AAAAAAAAATQ/4OX4YD0NRn4/s83-Ic42/two-stars.png" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://randomhousebooks.com//">Random House</a> for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via <a href="https://s2.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> in exchange for an honest review)</span></i></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-34816428956808037932016-07-01T08:29:00.000-05:002016-07-03T08:30:26.811-05:002016 Bookish Goals Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It’s that time of the year! The time when everyone wonders in amazement and confusion: “It’s July already? Where does time <i>go</i>!?”
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Yep, 2016 is halfway done and I figured it would be a good idea to check-in, look back at the bookish goals I set for myself six months ago, and update y’all on how I’m doing with those!
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(Also, I am back for real <i>for real</i> this time. More on that later…)
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Let the public shaming begin!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2016 BOOKISH GOALS: UPDATE
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b> 1) Read more:</b> As of this morning, I have read 28 books so far this year! Compared to the 13 I had read by this time last year, I think it’s safe to say that I’m kicking this goal’s butt! I thought after starting my new job, this particular one was going to suffer, but I’ve actually read more since I started working than the months before. Thank you, long commute!<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>2) Make a dent on my TBR:</b> Er… I am currently on a six month long book-buying ban <i>for a reason</i>. Between shiny new releases, library book sales, ARCs coming my way and giveaways won, my TBR has actually (probably) doubled in size. And yet, that doesn’t stop me from coming out of the library with a new pile of books every couple of weeks. I have a problem!!! Goal: failed (so far).<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> 3) Stick to the 100 pages rule:</b> I have been awesome at this! I think I have DNF’d 5 books so far this year because they didn’t live up to the expectations, bored me or I just didn’t find them interesting. A year ago, I probably would have stuck with them until the end, so setting up this goal allowed me to stop feeling guilty about giving up on books… Life is too short!<br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <b>4) Diversify!</b>: The spreadsheet that I’m using to keep track of my reading stats shows that I’ve read the same amount of fiction and non-fiction this year, with a 50/50 male to female ratio. An overwhelming amount of the authors I’ve read are American, but I have branched out to include other nationalities this year, which is an improvement!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /> <b> 5) Read more classics:</b> Wait, this was a goal I set for myself? Oops. I don’t think I’ve read any classics yet this year! I bought a lot of them, though... Does that count?<br /><br />
There were two other goals I set for myself that weren’t entirely reading-related and they were:
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<b>6) Keep an active blog:</b> <i>I know</i>, okay. I know! But life gets really busy sometimes! And reading slumps are totally a thing. Starting a new job has given me more time to read, but it sort of took away the motivation to sit down and write reviews or think up content for the blog because when I’m not reading or working, I’m sleeping and watching Grey’s Anatomy because that’s always gonna be the greatest TV show ever. I’m ready to start blogging again, though! And the great thing about being able to read more now is that I have a lot of things to write about! Keep an eye out for my reviews of recent releases like The Girls by Emma Cline, The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone (out on Tuesday!) and a special Neil Gaiman feature because I love his writing so much!
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7) Go to the Texas Book Festival!:</b> This happens in November and I am so excited! I’m even thinking about planning a meet-up… We’ll see!
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So I guess I’m not doing as bad as I thought I would. I still have the rest of the year to make sure I accomplish all of these goals and I am hopeful! How are you doing on your bookish goals, so far? Good? Not so good? What bookish goals, huh, what? Let me know in the comments!</span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-45446602867429533942016-06-02T14:11:00.000-05:002016-06-02T14:11:39.482-05:00Book Review: Before the Fall by Noah Hawley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well, it’s been a hot minute! May ended up being a ridiculously busy month and a terrible one for reading at that, hence the sporadic, all over the place reviews! But I’m back! (I think. I hope) And June’s already shaping up to be a good bookish month, if only because it started on such a high note with this book!
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Confession time: the only reason why I picked this book is because the author also wrote the TV show Fargo which I’ve enjoyed IMMENSELY and I figured, a book coming out from that same brain can’t be half bad, right? Well, I wasn’t wrong!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before the Fall revolves around the crash of a private plane off the coast of New York City where the only two survivors are a middle-aged painter, Scott Burroughs, and a 4-year-old boy who was a part of a very wealthy and powerful family. As authorities start investigating the crash, trying to figure out what happened--why would a perfectly good plane fall out of the sky? Was it an accident? An act of terrorism?--you get glimpses of the lives of the 11 people that were on board and the sense that nothing’s ever what it seems.
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I’ll admit that Before the Fall was not at all what I was expecting. After reading the synopsis, I was thinking I would find a very investigation-heavy plot full of red herrings, and while there was some of that in this book, it wasn’t the main focus. Instead, it takes a very character-driven approach, exploring each character’s lives up until the moment the plane takes off. It gets very interesting as it introduces you to the many possibilities that led to the crash and has you trying to solve the mystery along with law enforcement. At the same time, it focuses on the lives of those dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy; the survivors, the close relatives, and even the whole nation represented via the media.
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The social commentary in this novel is just excellent. It explores the manipulation of events done by the media, the way we as people react to tragedies, the obsession with wealth and how, in the end, no amount of money can save you when things go wrong. They vilify the man who survived and rescued the young boy because his version of the events didn’t support their agendas and the story they want to feed the viewers, so he goes from being heralded as a hero, to a suspicious man that had no business being on that plane and who might be behind the whole incident.
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At times, it was uncomfortable to read the parts involving the news station because it hit so close to home. It’s sickening the way news outlets take advantage of tragedies to get a higher viewership. It’s not about reporting the news or informing the people anymore, but about what shocking and scandalous headlines and images will turn people's attention away from all the other outlets, and this book does a good job portraying that and making insightful comments about our reality and who’s to blame.
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And then there’s the resolution that you don’t see coming and when you find out what truly happened to that plane, it almost breaks your heart and you feel as helpless as someone witnessing a train derailment knowing there’s nothing they can do to stop it. Yes, it’s all fictitious, but Noah Hawley does such a good job portraying real human beings and the complexity of relationships that the emotional response is automatic and hard to ignore.
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I enjoyed Before the Fall not only because of its fantastic narrative and writing, but because it managed to surprise me and kept me hooked even though I rarely (if ever!) seek to read character-driven suspense and thrillers. It was eye-opening and sad, but also uplifting at times, making you hope that wherever these characters go next, there’s nothing but good things waiting for them. They’ve been through enough!</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WICiccS2V5Y/VhbEWn2Q5gI/AAAAAAAAAS8/pJPQ84LTC-s/s83-Ic42/four-half-stars.png" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/">Grand Central Publishing</a> for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via <a href="https://s2.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> in exchange for an honest review)</span></i></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-56251415138033637642016-05-20T13:32:00.000-05:002016-05-20T13:43:03.010-05:00Book Review: Jane Doe January by Emily Winslow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYK3ZvgW-6nFGjc1EEEVchHXSc88k2X6gBSCNugVWo-iG3NwyT2vd1mSu7GC1wqdLhl74d6aPEBLA2OFGQldlIHa1GqSpOeIpBNg4OelZvjqBPsow55Tj2gTAxKbKJPFnkCXZeXTKYTB8/s1600/jdj.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYK3ZvgW-6nFGjc1EEEVchHXSc88k2X6gBSCNugVWo-iG3NwyT2vd1mSu7GC1wqdLhl74d6aPEBLA2OFGQldlIHa1GqSpOeIpBNg4OelZvjqBPsow55Tj2gTAxKbKJPFnkCXZeXTKYTB8/s200/jdj.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My latest non-fiction picks have been pulling no punches! Another exception to the rule. Another gripping book I think everyone should pick up and read sometimes.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In 1992, Emily Winslow was walking back home when a man jumped from the shadows of the stairwell, pushed her into her apartment and brutally attacked her. Her rapist was never caught and Emily moved on with her life. She became a writer, married, had kids. And then, two decades later, she got the news: Law enforcement had found her attacker and now she would finally have the chance to seek justice for what had been done to her.
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Jane Doe January is a deep and heartbreaking story detailing the struggles Emily Winslow had to go through, not only after her attack, but 20 years later as her past caught up to her and brought back all the awful memories. It is a brutally honest and blunt memoir that made me feel uncomfortable in more than one occasion.
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What Winslow does with this book is give a fresh insight from the point of view of the victim, which makes for very vulnerable and moving writing. It’s easy to see how she bared her heart as she told her story and was determined to be involved in every step of the process. She was longing for justice and there was just something very raw and powerful about how much of herself she put out there throughout the whole ordeal, made even more noticeable when contrasted with the way the other victim acted and how little she wanted to be involved.
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What impacted me the most about this book was the author’s near-obsession with her attacker’s life—she spent a significant amount of time trying to piece his life together through major events (most of them jail sentences), and it really unnerved me at first because why would anyone want to spend so much time and energy on someone that doesn’t deserve it? I understand this was her way of coping and it might have even been therapeutic for her, but reading about someone so different from me doing things that I consider pointless or unnecessary was a bit of a struggle for a while.
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And that's one of the things that make Jane Doe January so important. It either reflects your opinions or shows the complete opposite of what you think or believe, but that doesn’t make it less valid because this is a <i>real </i>thing that happened to a <i>real </i>person. You will put yourself in her shoes trying to understand the reasons behind her actions, but you will also question yourself: would you do things differently? Why or why not? What is it about her actions and reactions you agree/disagree with? It’s eye-opening and though I couldn’t empathize because I have never been in her situation and can’t even fathom what my reaction to an ordeal like this would be like, it was impossible not to sympathize.
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This book is not an easy read. It’s very personal, so it includes details about the author’s personal life that are not entirely related to the case, but it’s also very legal-heavy so depending on your approach to it, it might feel like it’s dragging sometimes. But I can’t emphasize enough how important I think this book is. It sheds light on the many issues of the legal system, and will help break the stereotypes of how victims are "supposed" to act and feel because not everyone’s the same and everyone copes differently.
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Jane Doe January is a book I would recommend to everyone. It will break your heart and give you hope, all while making you really angry and disappointed and sad. It can’t get any more honest than that.
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Jane Doe January comes out May 24th, 2016 from William Morrow.
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /></span></div>
<div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/search-results/?imprint=william-morrow">William Morrow</a> for providing me with an early copy of this book.)</span></i></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-24002998612775618852016-05-10T11:14:00.001-05:002016-05-10T11:14:44.591-05:00Book Review: Eleanor by Jason Gurley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Eleanor-Jason-Gurley/9781101903513?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1IG_rKrh0nGMGbVHvpnOd_cKzo1wlD0eqs_BQoJ-Ik3lgLsRp3BXUfki1At2waWVyg6ZQaIXp7nxH9V5R9mE54kKwSlOFR7Bpv-df7_Z7UFVDRx2Ide_dNiKc4oIAH8cMdVPEBJxxBgo/s200/eleanor.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Have you ever read a book so good, it almost ruined reading for you? Not forever, but for at least two weeks, you can’t think about anything but that book and no matter how many times you try to start another book, it just won’t work because that other book won’t let you focus?
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That was Eleanor for me these past two weeks. Book hangovers are real, y’all!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It’s 1963 and Eleanor is at home. She's married, with a young daughter and a baby on the way, but all she can think about is the ocean. She could have been a professional swimmer or a diver, but that was before life happened. <i>Life happened</i>. Like she didn't have a choice, like there's no way out. It's then that she becomes aware of her unhappiness and goes looking for a way out.
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It’s 1985 and Eleanor’s daughter is older now with two children of her own, twins Eleanor and Esmeralda. She's frustrated because motherhood is hard (and she never had the chance to learn by example), and trying to wrangle two easily excitable little girls into a car seems to be an impossible task to be done by just one person. But she succeeds, finally.
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There's a storm. Then a crash. Eleanor survives but Esmeralda isn't as lucky. It's 1993 and Eleanor is 14, burdened by grief and the dissolution of her family. And that's when it starts happening. Over and over, she seems to fall through the boundaries of time and space and on the other side, a familiar someone waits for her.
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Eleanor seems to be an ode to the grieving process and how it affects every person (and generations, even) differently. Whether it’s grief over missed opportunities or the passing of someone you love, everyone has a unique way of dealing with this emotion—some people try to rise above it, while others just let it consume them, and the worst part is: you can’t blame them for that. In this particular instance, Eleanor’s family let the grief tear them apart (as it often does to families when a child dies) and it was very interesting to see how it affected them all in their everyday lives and in their dreams.
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This book was magical and sad and it broke my heart. Aside from the obvious elements of grief presented, Jason Gurley managed to tap even deeper into these characters emotions and showcase their feelings in very subtle and unique ways. Reading the author notes at the end I discovered that it took him 14 years to write this story and at first I was puzzled by that; I know writing is hard, but that long? The more I thought about the book, though, and all the intricacies within it, I began to understand. This is a story that is well thought-out from start to finish, with some details revealed from the beginning that don’t make sense until you’re well into the story, and whole scenes that seem nonsensical and out of place until you’re almost nearing the end. It reminded me of what J.K. Rowling did over the span of 7 books, setting up seemingly innocuous events that ended up being very important pieces of a much larger plot. Pulling that off can’t be easy!
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Pulling that off takes approximately 14 years, but I’m sure all that time is worth it when the end result is a book so detailed, emotional and beautiful, it’s difficult to stop thinking about it weeks later.
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My favorite parts of this book were the parts infused with magical realism. Even though they were confusing at first, they added mystery to the story and a sense of urgency because just like Eleanor, you have no idea what’s happening or why. It was then that I realized I was invested in the story and the fate of these characters—my heart broke every time Eleanor interacted with her mom, I felt as helpless as her friend Jack did at times, and it made me anxious realizing that while it seemed like Eleanor “disappeared” for only a short amount of time, she was actually losing weeks and months and years off her life.
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I had no idea how much I actually enjoyed magical realism until this book. You have to commend an author that adds fantasy and magic to everyday life and makes it seem believable. You have to give them even more credit when they do that without losing sight of their characters! If your characters are still the strongest, most compelling part of your <i>fantasy </i>book, then you deserve all the appreciation and respect in the world.
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And don’t let me get started on the writing! Gurley used such <i>gorgeous </i>prose; his writing is emotional and very descriptive, and every word seemed to have a purpose and be meticulously placed. And he managed to pull off the one thing that usually bothers me about books—the ending! It was ambiguous, but it felt right, like just because the book is over doesn’t mean that Eleanor’s story is. I have mentioned this before on social media, but if Jason Gurley had written 500 pages, I would have gladly welcomed those, too!
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As you can probably tell, I really loved this book. I tried to think of at least one thing that didn't work for me or that I didn't enjoy but came up with nothing, so I’ll leave it at that. This is a very emotional book and probably not for everyone, but I definitely recommend it! If you think this is something you would enjoy? Go pick up your copy, stat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://crownpublishing.com/">Crown Publishing</a> for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.)</span></i></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-201260191513100672016-04-28T13:44:00.000-05:002016-04-28T13:44:25.948-05:00Book Review: Fellside by M.R. Carey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Fellside-M-R-Carey/9780356503585?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKiuFIibav5frtYC5qrgli5nRUP2ikBtoDVHIAbBxm_bSJlZTUSJpuer-1_BrjtotpT-F4-tReIUnpcZD5HUhmUuJl8DVriwSHwxxuxOFnaLCR8c3oR8LIvzkdDJ5_Sun8mt4e1tXFR-I/s200/fellside.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Given how much I loved (LOVED!!!) <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2015/12/review-girl-with-all-gifts-by-mr-carey.html">The Girl with all the Gifts</a> (beware spoilers!), I was excited to find out M.R. Carey was releasing a new book this year. So excited in fact that I went and pre-ordered the book which I never do, especially not when I know little to nothing about the book in question. But that’s how much I loved his previous book and his writing in general, so really, it was a no-brainer.
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That excitement turned into apprehension when I actually received the book a few weeks ago. What if my love for TGWATG clouded my judgement and set my expectations so high that it would ruin Fellside for me? What if I couldn’t stop my brain from comparing both books when, really, the only thing they have in common is the author?
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These are actual things I worry about, people. And they haunted me (heh) for the first 10 chapters or so, but after that? I was so immersed into the world of Fellside that all apprehension left and I was in for the long haul.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I’ve been referring to this book as a ghost story that takes place in a women’s prison (or like I read on Goodreads, “Orange is the New Black with ghosts!”) because trying to say more than that without spoiling minor, but very important, details is hard and you know how against spoiling the experience for other readers I am. But the gist of it goes like this:
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Jess Moulson is sent to Fellside prison for setting a fire while under the influence of drugs that resulted in the accidental death of her 10-year-old neighbor, Alex. The story begins when Jess wakes up in the hospital where her injuries are being treated with no recollection of the crime, but after sitting through her own trial, she believes the claims that she's responsible and pleads guilty. Once in prison and unable to deal with the guilt of her reckless actions, she stages a hunger strike—not in protest, but as the only means she has to end her life. But as she nears death, she encounters the ghost of Alex telling her she's not really responsible for his death... but he needs her help finding the real culprit.
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I was glad that I could manage to set my expectations aside because I got to enjoy this book for what it was: an engrossing, haunting, very violent story of human nature and justice. It was a story unlike anything I had ever read before and even though it contained themes I was familiar with such as corruption in the judicial system and the murky happenings inside correctional facilities, it dealt with them in ways that felt new and different to me. It also felt real, which is one of the things I enjoy the most about M.R. Carey’s writing; he has a way of making you feel part of the narrative, like you’re <i>there</i>, witnessing the violence and feeling like the danger can fall upon you at any time.
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I don’t know how he does it! But this is one of the reasons why he’s become a favorite in my books.
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Another reason? The way he writes characters. Fellside has a very wide cast of characters, but they’re all unique and so well-developed. Because of the writing there’s a realness to these characters that it’s hard to find in some books. It wasn’t all black and white, good guys and bad guys acting accordingly; no, these characters were flawed and they acted to the best or worst of their abilities given the circumstances, every act justified, and it all helped highlight not only the selfishness, but the selflessness of humans.
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The large, varied cast also helps you enjoy the book more as it moves slowly to build up the main plot. Little by little, Carey reveals characters and side plots that might feel like they have nothing to do with the main character or her journey, but that start making more sense as the story goes on, eventually converging and leading towards the climax and an unexpected but totally satisfying ending. It makes for a very intriguing book, one that made me wish I could spend a whole day reading it (or that I was a faster reader, at least!).
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Speaking of that ending, though! My main gripe with most books I read is that the ending never sticks for me. I always want more or less or just something <i>different</i> and books rarely deliver. That isn’t to say that those books or endings are bad, just that I am easily disappointed and I have learned to deal (and prepare) for that every-time I start a new book. This time, though? I finished this book with a smile on my face, feeling very content about the way it wrapped up. It wasn’t a happily ever after ending; it was messy but felt justified and there were some unanswered questions, but you know, sometimes life works like that. You don’t always get the answers you want and you’re left anxiously waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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This was a fun, gripping read that has you constantly wondering what’s going to happen next. I didn’t find it horrific in the supernatural sense, but definitely dark and brutal in the way people act and react to the circumstances—people are ugly when they’re trying to get ahead and get what they want, no matter what, and the setting it takes place in was perfect to showcase that. I would definitely recommend it for the writing alone, but the story is also pretty good. Just don’t go in expecting a spooky ghost story or hoping to find similarities with The Girl with all the Gifts because there are none. Keep that in mind and you’ll enjoy this book, too!</span></div>
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Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-15350141090811047862016-04-14T10:03:00.000-05:002016-04-14T10:03:56.978-05:00Book Review: The Dinner by Herman Koch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Dinner-Herman-Koch-Sam-Garrett/9780385346856?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht0WmALAZbtl9keZ2Owo7CJxtQQOgoj_V6CzKmNjGHSQetrXRR2tpRlyyGhT0X3rrmk7zELNei_xnWOo8V4vAR4xSYAGOAFRSKPcAI-kG4kngZqK0iP3X0-0G-ysHCz75PmVV8fjcof20/s200/dinner.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You know that question everyone is always asking, “if you could have dinner with any author/celebrity/historical figure, dead or alive, who would it be and why?”? I think someone asked Herman Koch a similar question and he got so into it that he wrote a whole book about it.
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So, Herman, if you could have dinner with some of the <i>worst people in the whole world</i>, who would they be and why?
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The story opens with Paul, our narrator, lamenting the fact that he and his wife, Claire, are expected to meet his brother Serge and sister-in-law Babette for dinner that evening, not only because they’re meeting at a fancy, fashionable restaurant (which isn’t Paul’s style at all), but because he’s not very fond of his brother Serge in the first place.
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Plus, there’s that one other reason that keeps this from being a regular family gathering to catch up and have a good time… No, why they’re actually there is to talk about their children, two 15-year-old boys who were caught on camera committing a heinous crime.
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The Dinner is classified as satire and before reading it, I had this idea that satire was supposed to be funny, but this book didn’t make me laugh. It made me uneasy more than once, disgusted by the characters’ actions and frustrated that once again, there was no justice anywhere (I should probably start letting go of that idea…). Someone on Goodreads informed me that satire can be funny, yes, but it can also be biting, bitter, angry or sad and then it clicked. Yes, that’s exactly what this book is! All of it. And though initially I wasn’t very impressed with it, once I stood corrected I could actually see that the author did a great job getting his point across.
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Told in parts titled as dinner courses, the evening progresses slowly as the narrator takes us back and forth through the series of events that led to him and his wife meeting his brother and sister-in-law for dinner, showing the obvious reluctance he has of breaching the very serious topic by the way he distracts and diverts the conversation every time his brother tries to bring it up again. It’s a classic case of unreliable narrator and you start realizing how unreliable and a poor judge of character he truly is as the novel progresses and their personalities and true intentions are revealed..
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There are no likable characters in this novel at all. They’re all just awful, self-absorbed, morally corrupted and sometimes even scary... and I actually enjoyed that. It reminds me of a thing the narrator says at one point, where he believes that a world without violence would be a terrible, boring place; this novel would have been a terrible, boring book had it not been for these awful people making awful life decisions with no regrets. The way they acted was gross and even though I was hoping they would get their comeuppance, there was a part of me that was enjoying the fact that they seemed to be getting away with everything!
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Through this dark, unfunny and only vaguely suspenseful satire, the author makes a lot of valid points about the state of society these days, things I found myself agreeing with sometimes but that made me extremely uneasy when I realized who I was actually agreeing with. It’s an eye opener to our own prejudices and a glimpse into the mind of those who hold prejudices we don’t or can’t comprehend.
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My only problem with this book was the pace. It was an interesting and actually challenging read, but I feel like it could have been a shorter book! In what I suspect was the author’s attempt at building up suspense, the story moves too slow and the narrator often goes on rants that feel repetitive and I found myself rolling my eyes a few times hoping he would just get on with it and get to the good part already. I also never felt “thrilled”, mostly intrigued by what the crime in question was and how the story would resolve itself in the end.
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The Dinner is a good book with an awful story where nothing is what it seems, so if you ever read it, go in with an open mind, expect to hate every character and get ready to be shocked by the lengths people will go to protect themselves and those they love.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EQ4Oe3QQszo/VhbEXy8n9AI/AAAAAAAAATE/-0ZRlM7xj_g/s1600/three-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-13539104418544144012016-04-07T13:41:00.000-05:002016-04-07T13:41:09.045-05:00Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Immortal-Life-of-Henriett-Lacks-Rebecc-Skloot/9781400052189?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNmwQYTwixPr5k-s9ptFxSwTvZyBbu9lRC8NytfxWMrXxrXHmUHdP4nWRNvOWFJxk6KDPh2-hIUGKnc8v3ThyCuFnKIcGCApylQqksAL_ZrFEF56B5xGF2tWVJxER46qSP2x9h7VhS8L0/s200/hela.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No funny, anecdotal opening paragraph here today. Everyone should go read this book.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Reviewing non-fiction books is sometimes tough because they are based on facts and you cannot argue with facts. You can’t criticize character development because these are real people with real struggles. You can’t criticize the plot because this is real life. So I’m going to try to be brief and put emphasis on how important I feel this book is.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a somewhat biographical, somewhat scientific book about a woman better known in the science field as HeLa. It talks about how a lot of scientific achievements in the past few decades (the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping) were possible thanks to the HeLa cells, the very first immortal human cells ever grown in a lab, and the shady implications behind that success.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Henrietta Lacks was a poor, African-American tobacco farmer who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 31, four months after giving birth to her fifth child, and who died shortly after when the radiation and the treatments were deemed ineffective because her cancer was spreading unusually fast. Curious about this fast-growing cancer, her doctor took some of her cells without her knowledge or consent. He, along with other scientists, had been trying for years to grow human cells in a lab but the cell lines usually died fairly soon. Henrietta’s cancer cells didn’t. Even after her death, her cells continued reproducing, allowing scientists to do countless tests and experiments on them and thus becoming one of the most important tools in the medical field for decades to come.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But while the HeLa cells became world famous, no one really knew the human those cells originally belonged to, or that they were taken without knowledge and consent. With this book, I think <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/author/57878/rebecca-skloot">Rebecca Skloot</a> set out to rectify that, shining a light on Henrietta Lacks and her family's struggle during a time where medical procedures were primitive (and sometimes even inhumane!) and the treatment of people of color was sub-par. It delves on the development of consent laws, how blindly people trust medical experts, and how easy these experts take advantage of that trust.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Skloot tracked down the Lackses and did her best to find as much information as she could about Henrietta, but after a lifetime of abuse and being tricked by a myriad of people who wanted information on their mother without ever truly coming clean to them (how come no one ever told them about their mother’s cells and how important they were to science? How come a lot of people were profiting from them while the descendants of the famous HeLa could barely afford food and medication?), the Lackses hardly trusted anyone and some of them refused to contribute much to her research.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Because of that, this book is as much about Henrietta Lacks and her unknowing contribution to science, as it is about her family, and the contrast and unfairness between her world famous cells being sold by billions and her children who can’t even afford health insurance.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This book left me with so many conflicting emotions. On one hand, I felt for the Lackses and the struggles they’ve had to endure their whole life after losing their mother and being left with an absent father, paired with the scrutiny of being related to an important figure in the scientific world without really understanding why or how because no one ever bothered to inform either Henrietta or her family about what they were doing with her cells. I don’t believe that money is a solve-all solution, but thinking about them getting nothing from their mother’s unknown contribution while scientists around the world are profiting from it makes you realize all the flaws in the system whose interests it’s really trying to protect. As Henrietta’s daughter put it (and I’m paraphrasing): They used a poor, black woman’s cells to develop a vaccine that only rich, white people can afford. And ain’t that just the kicker?
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But on the other hand, if that doctor hadn’t taken Henrietta’s cells, or if he had asked and she had refused, what would the world be like today? Chances are that maybe they would have come across someone else’s “immortal” cells, but what if they hadn’t? Her cells have helped saved so many lives and develop so much technology. Right now, in labs all over the world, many people are working with HeLa cells to try to find a cure to the same disease that killed the owner of those cells. Isn’t that amazing? It’s also important to note that nothing that the doctors, the hospital or the scientists after them did was outside of the law. In 1951 there were no informed consent laws so the doctor was under no obligation to tell Henrietta about taking her cells or the purpose he had for them.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If there was anything I didn’t like about this book was the author’s insertion into the story because it made her reporting and involvement very subjective. She failed to keep a journalistic distance to the subject matter, including too many personal details and feelings along the way, talking about the relationships she built with the Lackses, generally making the book about <i>her</i> and coming off as biased in many occasions.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Aside from that, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is fantastic and very informative and I think everyone should pick it up some time. It taught me things about the scientific field, medical laws, cancer, and the class struggles in the 50s that I never would have even bothered to think about, and it also did what it primarily set out to do. It gave Henrietta Lacks, a very important woman in scientific history, the attention and the fame she so deserves.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WICiccS2V5Y/VhbEWn2Q5gI/AAAAAAAAAS8/pJPQ84LTC-s/s83-Ic42/four-half-stars.png" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://www.bloggingforbooks.com/">Blogging for Books</a> for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)</span></i></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-28950136597699195572016-03-31T14:02:00.000-05:002016-04-07T03:44:31.714-05:00Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie #ReadWomenMarch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Mysterious-Affair-at-Styles-Agath-Christie/9780812977202?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM4U4DQIoCIw4qIkmFRdWnuW2t5LQS9QiKyjee_PuKiNLh31um07YZUL_6YsfZUcwkFd0GQvRfDMBApb6s9Bn0NyY6cje1eRQEtPfMMGq0bARfc1gi7kBlD2nqD5WlsbxVex_qfo_S8vs/s200/agatha.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">#ReadWomenMarch is coming to an end! It’s been so much fun keeping my focus on badass lady authors writing about badass lady characters and I encourage everyone to give this kind of challenge a try and add more diversity to their reading life! There are so many amazing books out there!
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For my last pick I went with a true and tried choice as I worked my way out of a reading slump. Who hasn’t heard of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime? This was only the second book of hers I’ve read and while it was fun and definitely got me out of that slump, it didn’t entirely convince me of the hype.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hastings tells us the tale of how, while he was staying at the village of Styles St. Mary visiting a friend and recovering from injury, the owner of the house, Mrs. Emily Ingelthorp, suddenly died of poisoning in the middle of the night.
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The murder is baffling given that she had been alone since 8 the previous evening and every door leading to her room was found locked at the time of her death. With no shortage of suspects—from her new husband to her daughter-in-law—Hastings calls upon his good old friend, renowned detective Hercule Poirot, to shine some light on this mysterious crime.
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This was a crime worthy of Sherlock Holmes and I think because of that, I found it a bit predictable and not at all shocking. Not to brag, but I think if Poirot had mentioned (however vaguely) all the clues instead of keeping them to himself to do the big reveal at the end, anyone could have solved the crime. He was purposefully misleading and it just made him seem like a braggy detective and not someone truly passionate about the art of deduction.
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Or maybe I’m biased! I love Sherlock Holmes, his love for deductive reasoning and his influence in forensic science, so reading these types of crime novels are sometimes a hit or miss for me. You either get it right or you don’t, and Agatha Christie failed to keep me engaged in this mystery, and sometimes her decisions confused me. Why use fingerprint analysis for some things but not others? You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble!<br /><br />
Now, don’t get me wrong. I still enjoyed the book for what it was and even found it to be lots of fun. Poirot’s exuberance and dramatic flair made for a very entertaining time and I think if I keep reading Christie, it would be mainly to read more of his adventures. I just won’t go in expecting that mind-blowing “<i>how did I not see this coming</i>?” feeling that I hope to get every time I read murder mysteries.
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The one thing that I really didn’t like at all was the character of Captain Hastings. I understand sometimes there has to be a character that needs things explained to them as they take the role of the audience that’s just as out of the loop<span style="color: #8e7cc3;">*</span>, but Agatha Christie just took this to the extreme, making Hastings come off as the dumbest man to ever exist. And he had hopes of becoming a detective himself? In what universe! It was irritating how slow he was because it forced Poirot to waste time explaining things that were so obvious, or worse: smirk and give him a metaphorical pat on the head while saying that everything would make sense in due time.
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The crime itself was a real puzzle and fun to try to solve along with Poirot, I just feel like Christie’s writing failed to make it a true mystery, but I also realize that this was her very first novel and that alone says a lot. I cannot judge her entire body of work by her first book, so I look forward to picking up more of her stories and seeing how her writing progressed with practice and experience! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a great introduction to the world of crime fiction and murder mysteries and nothing short of a light, fun read for those of us who have read our fair share in this genre. I personally didn’t hate it, but I didn’t walk out mind-blown like I was hoping I would!
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If anyone has any suggestions on what Agatha Christie titles I should 100% read next, comment with them! The other title I own is Murder on the Orient Express, but I would like to know what others you consider definite MUST reads by the queen of crime!
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*</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWatson">The Watson</a>, as explained by TV Tropes... funnily enough, they use Hastings as the prime example).</span></span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G01qD0xUdRU/VhbEYRLuWCI/AAAAAAAAATs/5w_psS8R43Q/s200/three-half-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-18242846834628180172016-03-24T12:15:00.000-05:002016-03-24T12:15:01.861-05:00Book Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple #ReadWomenMarch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Whered-You-Go-Bernadette-Maria-Semple/9780316204262?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLeanew5MQ9oBJkmygAVJm44m_LR7AcVufervRp_ZKdcHgNn55-XQErABB02wcogOXarVqgk725uRFCRnsUdag2LS9Ayw30mmCBnBUyRdICtoAhVj3glPKU4HxLcjy5ZIeTtGWpCiK9Zk/s200/bernadette.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">While browsing through this books’ Goodreads page, I saw someone compare it to Gilmore Girls and I knew right then that I needed to read it. Gilmore Girls was a perfect show with a fantastic cast of characters and I mourn its demise (and celebrate its revival!) every single day, so that was plenty of reason to make it a <i>must </i>read, but also probably why it took me so long to actually get to it. You know me and my expectations!
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With only that in mind, I embarked into the most delightful yet confusing reading experience of the past two years as I, too, wondered, Where'd you go, Bernadette?</span><br />
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In this book we follow a young girl named Bee Branch and her eccentric parents, Elgin Branch, who's a software developer at Microsoft, and Bernadette Fox, an agoraphobic and socially anxious former architect.
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The story sets off after Bee collects on a promise her parents made a few years before that they might have forgotten, but she never did: If she does well and gets perfect grades throughout middle school, they will gift her anything she wants. Bee's request? A family cruise trip to Antarctica!
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To Bernadette, this is problematic. She already hates something as simple as <i>leaving the house</i>, so why would she willingly sign up to be stuck in a cruise ship with strangers, headed for such a desolate place? The pressure and stress of this request start getting the best of Bernadette until one day she just... disappears, leaving everyone to figure out how, why, and most importantly, <i>where</i>?
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This book is a riot! I don’t remember any of the last 50 books I’ve read making me laugh so much, so often and keeping me so engaged that putting the book down just wasn’t an option. I can definitely see the comparisons with Gilmore Girls because this book is filled with pop culture references, intelligent, witty characters, and it puts a lot of emphasis in the relationship Bee has with her mother. It also has that moving and heart-warming quality of highlighting how important family is, especially the bond between a mother and her children.
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Though it is a very easy read, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is by no means fast paced and at times it dwells too much on certain aspects of the plot, recording the same facts from different sources. As it is, the way the story’s old is different and unusual. This book reads as a file that Bee (with some help) is putting together in an effort to unravel her mom’s mysterious disappearance, compiling letters, emails, magazine clippings, police reports, etc., that help create a timeline, as well as try to make sense of Bernadette’s odd behavior and subsequent vanishing. This style of writing makes for a very quick read, albeit somewhat confusing because you’re not only hearing about these various events from one narrator, but <i>several</i>. From a nosy neighbor to even Bernadette herself, all of these people’s POV help put together the facts as Bee moves forward trying to find her mom, with Bee herself filling in the gaps along the way.
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And while, yes, it is confusing and somewhat overwhelming at first to keep the characters straight, it also makes the book that much more entertaining. The characters are all different and well developed, though somewhat exaggerated at times given the satirical aspects of the novel. I enjoyed reading the different points of view, even while hating some of the characters (Soo-Lin!!!) because you could see their development as the story progressed and that’s something you rarely see in books. Secondary characters are usually just there for one purpose, to push the main character’s development along, and in Where’d You Go, Bernadette the secondary characters managed to do just that while doing some growing of their own.
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This type of storytelling also helped me understand the main character, Bernadette, better. Not only did I get a glimpse into her head by way of reading her emails, but I also got to see how other people saw her. This person who is considered a genius by some, a nuisance by others, who in reality is just someone paralyzed by fear of (past, present and future) failure, made for such a real, relatable character, and all the crazy things she does to avoid having to deal with people on a daily basis made me go from being really annoyed by her character and her quirks, to agreeing and sympathizing with her, and yes, even wishing I had my very own virtual assistant!
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As far as the plot goes, I will admit I did find it a little far-fetched, but not so bad that I couldn't suspend my disbelief and think that, sure, these things probably happen to rich people all the time! My only complaint is that there were certain storylines that felt too dramatic and unnecessary (I won’t mention them to avoid spoilers, but if you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about! Ugh, Elgin) and when it came to wrap up the story, Maria Semple broke out of the epistolary form and let Bee take over the narration, leaving some loose ends flying around.
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Overall, this was a super fun read. It was unexpected how much I ended up enjoying this book that I had put off reading so many times before! I laughed numerous times and flew through it as I tried to figure out where Bernadette had gone, and the ending (with all that it felt abrupt and lacking closure) gave me lots of warm feelings, which is always a plus! I will never not love a book that makes me feel things.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WICiccS2V5Y/VhbEWn2Q5gI/AAAAAAAAAS8/pJPQ84LTC-s/s83-Ic42/four-half-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-53157632109846835082016-03-16T13:24:00.000-05:002016-03-16T13:24:29.663-05:00Book Review: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye #ReadWomenMarch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Jane-Steele-Lyndsay-Faye/9780399169496?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvRF04guskTO4r-hqO4dF2PeR8bWQYHwKSHlhiy9eIcAhMkaZYYQm09bHDoIC7yZsG68PtRymGkEjGi9f8M8KRX5lUS8OJQb2XA_MKVrdeIyta87fDbieYEu4SttXQzIsLAEWVaSATovY/s200/IMG_9653.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have once again been let down by my expectations. When I hear the words “serial killer”, the likes of Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy come to mind. You know, those really terrible people who mindlessly killed for sport and pleasure? Yes! So when someone tells me a book features a <i>lady </i>serial killer, you better believe I will run and jump through hoops set on fire to read that book! (Thanks to Penguin/Putnam I didn’t have to do any of that...)
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But reader, this is not that kind of serial killer (and Jennifer Lopez taught me that self-defense is not murder!).</span><br />
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In this retelling of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane Steele’s life mirrors that of her favorite heroine. Orphaned at a young age, Jane suffers at the hands of her aunt and cousin and later on, the abuse continues in the form of the schoolmaster at the boarding school she’s sent to. The similarities stop when Jane Steele decides to take justice into her own hands and murders those who have wronged her.
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After running away from school and taking refuge in London, Jane discovers that her childhood home has new tenants and they are advertising for a governess. Under this guise, Jane decides to return to ascertain her rightful place as the heir, not anticipating the possibility of falling in love with Mr. Thornfield, the new master of the house, or the mystery and secrets surrounding this new family.
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Now Jane will try to solve their mystery, but will she be able to without risking her own dark past coming to light?<br /><br />OKAY. I’m going to start this review with a disclaimer:
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I don’t like watching trailers. The way the footage is put together is done deliberately to fool the moviegoer and they're so misleading that I've stopped watching them. I’d rather go into a movie spoiler-free and get surprised every five seconds. No expectations to be met!
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Similarly, I try to learn as little as possible about books before picking them up, that way I’m confused and surprised, and get to discover things along with the main character. Sometimes this works for the best (<a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2015/12/review-girl-with-all-gifts-by-mr-carey.html">The Girl with all the Gifts</a> and <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2016/01/review-library-at-mount-char-by-scott.html">The Library at Mount Char</a>, anyone?), and sometimes it only ends in disappointment.
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Another disclaimer? I have never read Jane Eyre...<br /><br />My point being this: I didn’t know this was a romance novel. I didn’t read the synopsis on the back of the book (which reads more like a summary, truth be told, but that’s an issue to address another time) and just went by word of mouth, so I had no idea there was even a romance plot in this book. Everyone was saying “lady serial killer!” so loud that it became difficult for me to ignore how much I wanted to read a book about a badass lady killing people for sport.
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This is not that book and that’s where my disappoint begins and ends. I was expecting something <i>different</i>, is all, which is why I'm gonna try not to dwell too much on the ways this book didn't work for me because it’s not the author’s fault that I crave psychologically disturbed individuals committing heinous crimes, and this book didn’t deliver.
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What Jane Steele <i>did </i>do was present the most beautiful writing style I have encountered since Neil Gaiman. I'm not comparing them because their styles are quite different, but Neil Gaiman could make the most simple cooking recipe sound fascinating and Lyndsay Faye managed to accomplish that, too. Even after realizing that this book wasn’t what I was expecting and finding out that it was as much a romance as it was a mystery (which would have made me drop any book because romance isn’t really my thing), I kept reading because of the writing alone. It is a thing of beauty and totally managed to immerse me into this world, making me feel like I was right there in Victorian London, a witness to Jane’s misdeeds.
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The characters in this novel were also fantastic. Jane might not have been the psychopath I was expecting, but she still was the most badass lady, taking matters into her own hands and letting everyone know she wasn’t to be messed with. She was self-sufficient and unapologetic, and yet that didn’t make her cold or aloof, which was such a refreshing take on how independent women are usually portrayed. She still falls in love and it clouds her judgement and makes her lose sleep, but it doesn’t take away from her character, making her, you know, <i>a normal person</i>. It was just delightful to read, even while I rolled my eyes because of course she had to fall in love with that man. Of course.
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And yet, despite all of this, the plot didn’t work for me. It started out really good and strong, showcasing Jane’s struggles and the lengths she’d go to protect herself and those she’d grown to care about, and I was hooked up until the point where she decides to work as a governess for Mr. Thornfield and the plot actually kicks off, veering into unexpected territory. It was also then that it became somewhat predictable and I knew <i>what </i>the outcome was gonna be, even if I didn't know the <i>how</i>.
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The one thing I truly loved about the story, though, was the mystery surrounding Mr. Thornfield and his family. The execution and resolution of that storyline felt very Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-esque and as a big Sherlock Holmes fan, that made me so excited to keep reading. I don’t know if that was Lyndsay Faye’s intention, but she nailed the excitement of the chase and the big reveal of the villain and I would read a whole book about just that if she wrote one!
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Overall, I won’t deny that Jane Steele was a good book. Well-researched, detailed and with a cast of delightful characters. And did I mention the writing is beautiful? Because it is! It just wasn’t for me and I think the way everyone was pitching this story was a little misleading. I’m still glad that I picked it up and read it, though! Because there were moments where I truly couldn’t put the book down and if anything, it made me discover an author I will definitely read more from, especially after finding out she’s a huge Sherlock Holmes fan, too. New favorite author alert!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye comes out March 22, 2016 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G01qD0xUdRU/VhbEYRLuWCI/AAAAAAAAATs/5w_psS8R43Q/s200/three-half-stars.png" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://www.penguin.com/meet/publishers/gpputnamssons/">Penguin/Putnam</a> for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.)</span></i></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-17841920636212177472016-03-09T14:20:00.000-06:002016-03-09T14:37:42.132-06:00Book Review: YOU by Caroline Kepnes #ReadWomenMarch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/You-Caroline-Kepnes/9781476785608?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7mkq_J1MDu-ZCi1rty8dSySATxPbPszzrdjt2MTl_vkHUiXwUZPTsfdXU9vOpQSeF7Vr1Kz6BHRtuNSqAMHQR7A2MJD6cvVb-ys_QvMLsV0In2mgTMTWooohD6niSE-5-YXGurxEg1w/s200/you.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Have you ever experienced that feeling where the moment you become aware of something, you suddenly see it pop up everywhere, all the time? Let's say you had no idea an author called Caroline Kepnes existed but then you stumbled upon this review and suddenly you start seeing her name and/or books mentioned everywhere to the point where it feels like it's stalking you?
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Well, that's happening right now.
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When I posted my review of <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2016/02/book-review-perfect-days.html">Perfect Days</a>, I mentioned that I had yet to read a crime fiction book written from the perspective of the perpetrator which I had always wanted and it was awesome! <i>Clearly </i>I'm not well-versed in crime fiction because suddenly these books are everywhere and after going years without finding one, I have now read two of them in the span of a <i>month</i>.
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Needless to say, it was pretty awesome!
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In YOU we follow Joe, a twenty-something bookseller at an independent bookstore in New York City. He's a snarky dude who spends his day silently poking fun at customers who shame-buy Dan Brown's books while trying to hide them among classics and other literary choices. But then one day a young woman named Beck walks into his store and Joe is immediately taken with her, so much so, that he starts coming up with ways to get to know her and become a part of her life, trying some very unsavory and extreme methods to achieve this.
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He stalks her, is what he does.
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It doesn't help that Beck is probably the least private person in the whole world, giving Joe plenty of opportunity to get to know her and plan his next move.
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The way this story is told (second person narrative) took me a while to get used to. "<i>You did this, and you did that and you don’t understand that I’m being a creep because I love you</i>" was tiring to read at first but once I got a bit into the book and the plot kicked off, it stopped being so distracting and actually worked in favor of showcasing how delusional Joe was in his intentions and his love.
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It also helped to give the book this unique and funny view into the mind of the psychopath. When I read Perfect Days, I felt that everything just happened too fast. One day he’s meeting the girl, the next he’s kidnapping her and it doesn’t give you time to assimilate all of these terrible things that are happening. With YOU, it’s the total opposite. Joe has no problem taking his time to make his “relationship” with Beck appear to be progressing naturally and normally, to the point where he even starts believing that the way he’s doing things is the perfect way to start this relationship with Beck.
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It was also funny because throughout the book, Joe gives non-stop social commentary on modern living, especially in New York and by the more privileged, mocking their lifestyle and the terrible choices they make. My favorite thing about it is how much I ended up agreeing with some of the things he said; I found myself highlighting some of my favorite passages and nodding along to some of his thoughts and explanations, even though the things he was trying to reason were terrible, no good things I would never think are okay... And yet!
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You have to commend Caroline Kepnes for making you sympathize with a crazy stalker.
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Well, not sympathize. I never really felt <i>sympathetic </i>to Joe or his cause. His relationship with Beck was dumb and superficial and his obsession was over who he wanted Beck to be and not who she really was, so I had a hard time caring about whether or not he would get the girl. His personality and the thrill of figuring out what terrible thing he would be doing next in his attempt to get the girl was what kept me reading to the very end.
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YOU is a very character-driven book and I think because of that, the plot suffers a little bit, making it less of a thriller or a mystery for me. The one thing I didn’t like about this book was the ending, which I could see from a mile away and I spent the last 100 pages hoping it wasn’t going to turn out the way I thought. It was boring and cheesy and I found myself thinking, ‘<i>oh no, here we go again</i>’ which is not a thought you want readers to have when you have a sequel in the works.
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This is forgivable, though because the characters do make up for it. There’s the main character who’s not the typical one-note bad guy; he’s charming and funny and sometimes he even makes you want to root for him, psycho that he is and all! Then there’s the victim who successfully subverts the victim trope by being a horrible person herself. Not saying that she deserves having this creepy guy stalking her, of course, but usually the victims in these type of stories are meek and soft-spoken women and Beck is the opposite of that. She’s just as narcissistic as Joe and thrives on the attention she gets, which in a way helps and encourages Joe in his stalking.
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These characters, even the secondary ones, aren’t perfect. They have issues and flaws and redeeming qualities and it all plays a part in the plot and how Joe uses their own faults and graces to ultimately get what he wants.
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Ending aside, I did love this book! Almost 500 pages and I flew through it in like 3 days, which is a feat in and of itself considering what a slow reader I am. The writing is so fresh and fun that it makes you forget what a long book it is and Joe will keep you captivated with his funny quips and delusions all the way to the end. It was very entertaining and creepy and I can’t wait to see what Caroline Kepnes has in store for us in the sequel!</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-38162830567187169342016-03-03T14:28:00.000-06:002016-03-09T14:38:50.858-06:00Guest Book Review: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/As-I-Lay-Dying-William-Faulkner/9780679732259?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifo8nWbuXse1lqEyRxG8WbXnWmJWrj6ji2gLng0JQrQbpA8oOoUvQgojZKz1j8rzWHXrDGMPnkapDHvWy0ZT4u5ZyooIuLv0YWT-Be1MYxiDYYXrORl4ZiysqtoGE3UNudOr4k5ExaQAU/s200/IMG_9466.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/40997547">Eddie V</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I read somewhere that William Faulkner is one of Cormac McCarthy’s favorite authors, and because I loved <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2016/01/guest-review-blood-meridian-by-cormac-mccarthy.html">Blood Meridian</a> so much, I decided to read one of Faulkner’s novels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I could immediately see how McCarthy was influenced by Faulkner because Faulkner too writes in an “I don’t give a damn about rules” style; in fact, he probably cared even less. In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner tell his story from the perspective of 15 different narrators using a stream of consciousness technique that even after rereading certain passages can leave the reader totally confused. Beyond the sometimes confusion, however, As I Lay Dying tells a bittersweet story about the dysfunctional Bundren family working together through a difficult situation regardless of their opinions of each other or their selfish motivations. For me, this novel is a parable about the importance of family but also the ugliness that we may allow ourselves to regard them with.
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The book takes place on the Bundren’s rural farm in Mississippi in the 1920s, where the matriarch, Addie, is laying down dying while her oldest son, Cash, builds a coffin for her. All around her its business as usual on the farm because the family can’t afford to lose a day’s work and every penny counts. We learn that her husband, Anse, has promised to deliver her body across the county so she may be laid to rest in her hometown of Jefferson. Her sons, Jewel and Darl, have traveled off the farm to make a couple dollars in the midst of a raging sibling rivalry. Daughter Dewey Dell is troubled by a scandalous secret and the youngest, Vardaman, is having trouble figuring out where he fits in in the family. As all this is happening, we are privy to each family member’s thoughts and begin to understand how each one is dealing with the eventual death of their wife and mother. The spectrum of emotions runs from guilt, pride, spite, indifference, betrayal and a sense of duty. Anse and Dewey Dell both feel bad about her death, both see it as a selfish opportunity. Darl and Jewel both want mom to be handled respectfully but have differing opinions on the matter. We even get the perspective of Addie after she dies and her true feelings about her family. What’s great about this family’s dynamic is that it makes you think and analyze yourself and your family and how you would act if placed in such a situation.
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Personally, I was recently actually placed in a similar situation. My mother was diagnosed with cancer and luckily she was treated and survived the ordeal and things are back to normal. Still, even though it was happening to her, everyone in my family had their own reactions to the news. Now, I can’t speak for everyone else (especially because my family isn’t one to have these deep personal discussions), I don’t think any of us reacted in such a nasty and selfish way the Bundren’s did. If I were to compare myself to any of the book’s characters, I think I relate most to the oldest Bundren boy, Cash. The entire time, he worked tirelessly and selflessly to build the best coffin he could out of honor and respect to his mother. Even when the rain came down and no one offered to help him, he focused on the task at hand. On the journey to the town, he was badly injured yet he made no complaints because he knew what had to be done. Similarly, I felt that I offered to take my mom to most of her appointments in an effort to not inconvenience anyone else’s work and life schedules.
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Is there some kind of selfishness to want to feel like I did something noble? Probably. But it’s nowhere as selfish as Anse’s behavior. You see, as noble as he may want to feel, he’s probably the most detestable character in the novel. He makes bad decisions all the time, refuses advice and help from friends and neighbors, puts his family in danger, handles Addie’s body poorly, and treats his family like employees all because he made a promise to someone who will never know if it was kept; or at least that’s what he’d have you believe. The truth is that not only could he have prevented Addie’s death, he really just needs an excuse to go to town to do some shopping.
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I think the most important lesson we can hope to learn from this parable is to value the importance of the people we have in our lives, celebrate the time you have with them and try to prepare ourselves to handle any misfortune you may face together. Much like McCarthy, Faulkner teaches us how to deal with some of the less enjoyable parts of the human experience. While the story may feel forgettable, the feelings you get about family from this book will last your lifetime.
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-31847429567222233252016-02-24T17:00:00.001-06:002016-03-09T14:38:10.129-06:00Book Review: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Virgin-Suicides-Jeffrey-Eugenides/9780007524303?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNK8Uoz-sPnJDkoPDLxBp3ZUkfRWrRWmkzG_fJe5vOr3dflnUUUrIw1FZy9wPrAHQ2So-RprQth2Bu_zxZESNbBQ5HeDOFvVZWYMAY0571GQjd_-zDTUv7vzEQgsMfeLRKN2hVMi7mrc/s200/tvs.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Look! Look! I’m finally tackling the books on my TBR! It only took two whole months for me to pick something that wasn’t from the library or something bought recently, but whatever. I still have about 10 months to accomplish that book goal, right? Right!
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The Virgin Suicides is one of those books that everyone seems to love, but I never knew why. Aside from the obvious spoiler in the title, I had no idea what I was getting into, so I let myself be carried away by the good reviews and the possibility of this being a book about cult mass suicides (doesn’t it sound like it could be?) when I picked this up and was thoroughly proven wrong upon reading the very first page, but also? I was completely hooked and ready to be immersed in this fantastical mystery.
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The Virgin Suicides is told from the perspective of a group of unidentified men who, 20 years prior, lived in the same neighborhood as the Lisbons and their 5 daughters. These men were (and still are, given the accounts of the book) obsessed with the Lisbon girls, the mystery that seemed to surround them and the reasons why they all decided to commit suicide.
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Over the years, the boys collected evidence they thought would be able to help them solve the mystery of the Lisbon sisters<span style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px;">—</span>photographs, objects that belonged to the girls, interviews of people that interacted with the girls during their trouble time, and other items, but they only seem to emphasize their obsession and help little in the struggle of making sense of the events of their youth. No matter how hard they try, there will always be a lot of unanswered questions about the suicides of the Lisbon girls.
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First of all, I gotta say I really loved this book. It’s one of those books that I wasn’t entirely sure I was enjoying or understanding while I was reading it, and I found it aggravating at times, but it still has me thinking about it a week after I finished it. Like the narrator, it feels like I can’t get the Lisbon girls out of my head and it’s unnerving because the book is over, but the tragedy of it seems to have burrowed deep within and I can’t let it go.
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It doesn’t help that the narration is so beautifully done. The story has a dreamy quality with beautiful imagery that at times made me feel nostalgic for a time and place that I never actually lived. It made me want to live on their street, witness the slow decay of their family and their house and the neighborhood who always watched from afar but never felt it necessary to intervene.
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Yes, it all sounds very voyeuristic, but here’s the thing: The whole book has a voyeuristic feel to it. I mean, it’s a book about a group of <i>boys</i> talking about their decades-long obsession with a group of <i>girls</i> and their <i>death</i>. By all means, it should be gross and self-indulgent and to a point, it kinda is and it irritated me more than once, but Eugenides’ writing style and overall theme more than made up for it. He manages to capture perfectly the pain of adolescent love (and lust and confusion) and the battle of trying to make sense of the world that seems never-ending when you’re young. He also has the gift of pulling the reader in and locking them in place from the very first page, making them want to know more about these girls, but never deviating from the narration style, thus never giving the girls a much-needed voice.
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I found this type of storytelling from the perspective of a group of people, particularly a group of men recalling memories and details of their adolescence, to be a perfect way to express the themes and message this novel is trying to get across. The Virgin Suicides isn’t a character study because the boys never really knew the girls or understood them and, more importantly, they never made any <i>true effort</i> to get to know them and so, as readers, we know nothing about the girls, either. All we’re really exposed to is the fantastical idea (and the fantasies) the boys have of the girls.
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But what little we know of the Lisbon sisters speaks volumes of the tragedy that befell them and how preventable it was. The palpable obsession everyone seemed to have with their sexuality<span style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px;">—</span>whether it was their parents, who went to extreme lengths to protect their innocence, or this group of boys who saw them (and sometimes treated them) as sexual objects<span style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px;">—</span>is what I think ultimately drove them to their demise. What if instead of idolizing them, those boys had tried to befriend them? Or if instead of isolating them, their parents had had a more open relationship with their daughters and had tried to understand their feelings? If they hadn't been so detached from everything around them and felt so alone, would they still have committed suicide?
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The Virgin Suicides is intense, jarring and beautifully written. It’s a book that makes you think and definitely leaves an impression on you and I totally recommend it! And did I mention the writing is amazing? Can’t wait to get my hands on more of Eugenides’ works!</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WICiccS2V5Y/VhbEWn2Q5gI/AAAAAAAAAS8/pJPQ84LTC-s/s83-Ic42/four-half-stars.png" /></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-17125893973921971732016-02-17T12:13:00.002-06:002016-02-17T12:15:38.638-06:00Book Review: The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Futurological-Congress/9780156340403?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79vRbW80Z8qr9tUHEA5abSvUwoGuWQx1L9VcTVomq7fv1HvMXvqOSoq1-VZy4_o0EhuGbPpoZM4dZDq78PrQEU19Zz33MD5gIsRxACWX3EjFONLJtbankxP0v53MWFNsALU3VoviCLPI/s200/tfc.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem feels like a dream. A really bizarre one, you know? One where you find yourself falling off a cliff for some crazy reason, only to be saved by praying mantises on flying scooters?
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Like that, but ten times weirder.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cosmonaut Ijon Tichy returns to Earth to attend the 8th Futurological Congress, a gathering of experts and government delegates from all around the world where the main topic of discussion is the many problems plaguing humanity and their possible solution. Held in a Hilton hotel in Costa Rica, Ijon and the rest of the guests are oblivious to the rebellion brewing outside and suddenly find themselves in the middle of a revolution. Following a series of unfortunate events, Ijon loses his grip on reality and is so far gone that doctors decide to freeze him until a time when they can find a cure for his condition.
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It’s the year 2039 when Ijon wakes up and he finds himself in a world where hallucinations have replaced reality.
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I had a very unique reading experience with The Futurological Congress. I first watched the movie inspired by the book, “The Congress”, over a year ago and felt like someone had inconspicuously slipped some very heavy drugs into my drink because that movie was super trippy and confusing. Think animated Inception on hallucinogens and then crank it up a notch or <i>ten</i>... After walking out of that movie theatre, though, I didn’t think much else about it until a couple of weeks ago when my husband brought it up again, and so we re-watched it. And then again. And then we found out it was inspired by a book, so of course we had to get that. And suddenly, the movie made sense.
<br /><br />
Kinda.
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This had never happened to me before, reading a book after seeing the movie it inspired and having that movie enhance the reading experience instead of diminishing it. To me, it felt like the movie was made to help me better understand the events of the book, but you can’t really appreciate the movie and its subtleties unless you’ve read the book. Conundrum! The only possible solution, of course, is to re-watch the movie a thousand times before and after reading the book.
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Also, funnily enough? The book and the movie are two completely different stories.
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But enough about the movie (which you should totally watch), let’s talk about this book!
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Throughout most of the book, I kept referring to it as “1984 or <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2015/12/review-fahrenheit-451-by-ray-bradbury.html">Fahrenheit 451</a> on drugs” because it had that dystopian feeling of the friendly neighborhood government trying to control and appease the masses by ridiculous means, and the main character who just can’t accept the current state of affairs; but what makes The Futurological Congress different to those dystopian novels, is the good dose of dark humor and satire that Stanislaw Lem infuses into the story, taking things to the extreme and the absurd to illustrate issues that are still prevalent in society today (overpopulation, anyone?). It also dedicates a whole section to the concept of futurolinguistics and the development of language, which just adds an extra layer to the wackiness (and which was probably really annoying to translate! I don’t speak Polish so I can’t say for sure that nothing was lost in translation, but considering all the made up words in this book, I feel like Michael Kandel did a fantastic job translating this book. There was no disconnect and it read like it had originally been written in English).
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As a whole, this book is really good. It’s very short and action-packed and it starts off a little slow and confusing, but definitely pulls you in as you walk along Ijon Tichy trying to make sense of this new, futuristic reality. It has a point to make and it does it in very weird and inventive ways. When you get to the particulars, though, you start finding flaws, like the lack of character development and diversity and even the poor personality of the main characters. This book is about the <i>story</i> and not its characters and it’s something you should definitely keep in mind as you navigate this brave new world without feeling one bit of sympathy for Ijon or anyone else in it.
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I wish I could say more but I really don’t want to spoil the experience! Highly recommend it, though. Even if you’re not a fan of Sci-Fi or are getting tired of dystopian futures, this book will take you on such a mind bending trip that you’ll be glad you picked it up.
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And then you must watch the movie for double the trippy fun!</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-78161477824204932312016-02-10T11:54:00.001-06:002016-02-17T12:08:43.003-06:00Character Spotlight: Deadpool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Another unusual post brought to you by the fact that I've been binge-watching Making A Murderer and trying to Sherlock Holmes the Avery case, and therefore have gotten little to no reading done for the past couple of weeks...
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BUT ALSO.
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There are only two more sleeps until the Merc With a Mouth has his big-screen debut* and I could not be more excited!!! I adore Deadpool, so of course, this calls for a special feature.
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Let me talk to you about the greatest character Marvel has ever created!**
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The first comic book I ever read was the whole run of <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Civil-War/9780785121794?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Civil War</a> (tie-ins and all!) and other than leaving me very confused because I had no idea who anyone was, it introduced me to who would become one of my most favorite characters of the Marvel Universe. Deadpool charmed me with his fourth-wall breaking, self-deprecating humor and the myriad of ways he got himself killed throughout the issues. He’s silly, certifiably insane, completely unpredictable and so very human.
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The way the origin story goes, Wade Wilson, a teenage delinquent turned soldier, became a test subject for the Weapon X program after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, in an attempt to find a cure and prolong his life. He was implanted with a healing factor similar to Wolverine’s, which made him immune to diseases and helped him regenerate any destroyed tissue at an accelerated rate. Although the healing factor saved his life, it also prevented both his normal cells and cancerous cells from ever dying, so Wade was left continuously in pain and permanently scarred.
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Aside from being pretty much immortal and bouncing back from the deadliest of wounds (getting his head ripped off? No biggie!), Wade is also a trained soldier and weapons expert and he’s known to use his skills for the greater good… of himself. He’s a wannabe super villain turned mercenary and he goes where the money is, regardless of how hard or near-impossible the task might be. You want him to kill the Hulk? Yep, he’ll go ahead and try to do that for ya!
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But despite all the blood, the senseless violence and the seemingly lack of moral compass, Deadpool is a multi-layered character that has shown on multiple occasions that he does care about certain things, like feeling included, having friends, and making sure above all that no innocent bystander gets caught in the hail of bullets that usually surrounds him.
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He’s a big ol’ softie, really.<br /><br />
Right around the time that I discovered comic books and Deadpool, Marvel announced a new series that would be part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, which seemed like the perfect starting point for a newbie like me. And it was! Starting with <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Deadpool-Dead-Presidents-Marvel-Now-Volume-1-Gerry-Duggan-Tony-Moore-Brian-Posehn/9780785166801%E2%80%9D?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Deadpool: Dead Presidents</a>, Deadpool Vol. 3 seemed to encompass everything that made him popular while developing his character in subtle but meaningful ways, always keeping that wisecracking humor that earned him the nickname of Regenerating Degenerate.
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I don’t consider myself a Deadpool expert. Aside from going back and reading Vol. 2, I never really read any other old storylines and I haven’t caught up with all of the spin-offs that his character has had ever since, but I can still appreciate what the character stands for and especially what Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan did with him, turning him into a must-follow character and cementing Deadpool as one of my most favorites forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />And now of course, I'm beyond excited to finally see him on the big screen this weekend! It's a miracle that this movie got made, so I hope you're all planning to go see it, too. Trust me, you'll be in for a blood-soaked treat! If you’ve never read Deadpool and want to get a preview of what to expect, definitely check out Dead Presidents! It involves wacky magic and an army of Zombie Presidents dissatisfied with the current state of America!
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I also recommend <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Deadpool-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly-Marvel-Now-Volume-3-Gerry-Dugan-Scott-Koblish-Declan-Shalvey-Brian-Posehn/9780785166825%E2%80%9D?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Deadpool: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</a> for an equally wacky but more serious glimpse into the character, or any of the spin-offs like <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Deadpool-Kills-The-Marvel-Universe-Cullen-Bunn-Dalibor-Talajic/9780785164036%E2%80%9D?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe</a>, <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Deadpool-Kills-Deadpool-Cullen-Bunn-Salv-Espin/9780785184935%E2%80%9D?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Deadpool Kills Deadpool</a> or <a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Night-of-the-Living-Deadpool-Cullen-Bunn/9780785190172%E2%80%9D?a_aid=joiedeslivres">Night of the Living Deadpool</a> for a taste of crazy violence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Happy reading!<br /><br />
<small>* <i>His cameo on X-Men Origins: Wolverine does not count. Forget that ever happened!</i><br />
** <i>After Black Widow, that is. Sorry, Wade!</i></small></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-59957065452919088842016-02-03T11:04:00.000-06:002016-03-09T14:39:51.387-06:00Book Review: Perfect Days by Raphael Montes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Perfect-Days-Raphael-Montes-Alison-Entrekin/9781846559525?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOLtOW2kWOE6zyxSfARJow8czUXBofSGCSaS7_3T1in5cmTIFwcEa6sF2gq8y3GYUNtuSWH9IfEhXWv3xJ44dtOCrbfpatpXW6YlgUaui5_RywVBLsmiXQ4l9RtWOnvWZ6BMi6irPT4Do/s200/perfectdays.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally! A book about a delusional psychopath told from the perspective of said psychopath? Yes, please!
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If you’ve been around this blog long enough, you’ve probably figured out that my favorite thing about true crime books and crime fiction is the psychology and the inner workings of these messed up individuals. Unfortunately, these books are usually written from the perspective of the victims or the detectives who are trying to catch them, leaving me to only speculate on the motivation behind their actions.
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Perfect Days, <i>finally</i>, has given me what I’ve always wanted.
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Pack your bags, we’re going on a road trip!
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Teo Avelar, a medical student, is somewhat of a loner. His days are spent in between home, taking care of his paraplegic mother, and at school with his best friend, Gertrude, the somewhat decomposed body of a woman they’re studying in anatomy class… <i>Yeah</i>. Teo doesn’t seem to truly care for anything—he takes care of his mother because that’s what’s expected of him and his connection with Gertrude is more about the idea he has of the kind of person she used to be when she was alive than any morbid attraction to a cadaver. He describes his life as a “monotonous routine, devoid of happy or sad moments” and as depressing as it might sound, he’s fine with that.
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But then he meets Clarice. A happy-go-lucky free spirit who is the total opposite of Teo and who awakens in him feelings he had never experienced before. He’s in love! He’s sure of it! So in a move that only makes sense in the mind of a really disturbed person, he kidnaps her. Because of course, there’s no better way to make someone like (nay, love!) you back than to harass, stalk and stuff them in a suitcase!
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What follows is a road trip of disturbing twists and turns around Brazil filled with pretty gruesome events and a glimpse into the mind of a delusional individual who’s devoid of feelings and completely out of touch with reality.
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Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book! It was a compelling read from start to finish and so twisted that I had to put it down a few times because as much as I loved getting into the mind of the psychopath, there were parts that made me very uncomfortable. The way Teo reasoned his actions and every life-altering decision he made on behalf of other characters was nauseating and while I never liked or felt sympathy for him, seeing things from his point of view made for a very interesting (and unpleasant!) perspective.
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And trust me, I didn’t go long before picking it up again! It’s that kind of book.
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It's also a book with the worst cast of characters that I have ever encountered, and by worst I don’t mean that they are terribly written, just that they are <i>really terrible people</i>. All of them, in some way or another, played a big part on the way the events unfolded in Perfect Days; from Teo’s worried mom to Clarice’s uncaring parents, friends and ex-boyfriend, and even the corrupt police officer that only shows up for a page or two... They all have one thing in common and it’s that all of them could have saved Clarice a whole lot of trouble! Funnily enough, it was the police officer in particular that struck a chord with me because of the way he handled his meeting with Teo. I come from a country where that kind of corruption runs rampant and seeing it featured in Perfect Days gave the book a needed touch of reality.
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And I guess that would be one of the things that didn’t convince me about this book: the lack of reality. Some of the events of this book seemed a little far-fetched and exaggerated, and a good dose of suspension of disbelief is needed to not get thrown out of the story as the plot thickens and the tension picks up. On the bright side? It keeps the novel from ever crossing the line into “this could actually happen to you and isn’t that terrifying and nightmare-inducing?” territory… which works perfectly for me because I don’t need to add “paranoid of being stuffed in a suitcase and kidnapped” to my list of neuroses!
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The one other thing I wasn’t too keen on was the writing. This is a translated work so I am sure that has a lot to do with the fact that the writing felt stiff and too technical at times. I’ve never been a fan of reading translated works for this very reason, too many nuances get lost in translation sometimes, but the premise was just too intriguing to pass up and while the writing irked me a little, it didn’t take away too much from the story or made it any less creepy. Just think how much more disturbing it probably is in its original language, though!
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Also, that ending? No spoilers! But oh, the injustice breaks my heart. I hated it so much, but I also think it was a perfect ending, very refreshing to see in this genre. It still pissed me off, though. It was then I realized how invested I was in these characters because I had trouble falling asleep after finishing the book, I was so angry!
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Yep, <i>that kind of book</i>.
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I thoroughly recommend Perfect Days. Especially if you’re looking for a fast-paced, deeply disturbing story and the most messed up example of unrequited love I’ve ever come across in a book. It will have your skin crawling, but you will not be able to put it down!
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Perfect Days by Raphael Montes comes out February 16th, 2016 from Penguin Press.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(I’d like to thank <a href="http://thepenguinpress.com/">The Penguin Press</a> for providing me with a digital ARC of this book via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> in exchange for an honest review.)</span></i></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-20826280288424671572016-01-27T16:00:00.000-06:002016-01-27T16:00:56.669-06:00Book Review: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/House-on-Mango-Street-Sandr-Cisneros/9780679734772?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1tTOoEqAwAEP-Crw_wWtYtVyHUV24jhQT1-I6hX4KBHNGQaN7I2yQXNcWnWxRh0i7T3Gf8YZcb4i2j258hlQBxKin-zgwuspvSz3GExd78BEUiLK3TF0uwhdlSireBbbmJbsTh438lBw/s200/IMG_7582.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am not a poetry person. I mentioned to my husband not long ago that I don’t know if I’m not a poetry person because I don’t understand poetry or if it’s just the simple fact that I don’t like it, like some people don’t like genre fiction or young adult. I think maybe that conversation was what made me pick up this book, but also what sort of made me regret picking it up at first because it bored and lulled me to sleep the first couple of times I tried to start it.
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This is a very short book, though, and I decided to fight through the drowsiness and get to the end because while the writing style wasn’t too much to my liking, the story itself was very captivating. After the first 20 pages or so the writing stopped being so distracting and I could finally appreciate the power of this novel, which made for a very personal reading experience.
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Emphasis on the personal!
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The House on Mango Street is a novel written as a series of vignettes that tell the coming-of-age story of Esperanza, a Mexican-American adolescent girl growing up in Chicago. This series of vignettes covers about a year of Esperanza’s life and follows her through significant moments in her life that relate to her family, friends, school, puberty, abuse and misogyny, all the while capturing her struggle of feeling like an outsider. While some of these vignettes are very personal, Esperanza also takes the time to talk about the people in her neighborhood, highlighting the way she sees her future reflected in their lives.
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This book felt personal in a way no other book has ever made me feel before. It seemed to tell stories from a personal diary that I never really kept, but also showed me glimpses of what my mother’s life must have been like— a woman who only ever wanted to leave her house and who eventually accomplished it, but not without a ball and chain strapped to her ankle. It also made me wonder what life was like for my grandmother, or my mother in law, who was actually born in Mexico and later on moved to Chicago like one of the characters in the novel— did her heart also break when her children started speaking a language in which she wasn’t very fluent?
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But the character that I could personally relate to the most was Esperanza, or at least parts of her. Growing up, I didn’t have any of the struggles or heartbreaking experiences that she did. My parents did, for sure; financial struggles paired up with the need to provide for their children and everything that entails, but I was an oblivious child and unlike Esperanza, I wasn’t aware of the things that troubled my parents or our neighbors, the gritty reality of living in an impoverished neighborhood, the latent misogyny in Latino culture, and the abuse that’s become the status quo in our society.
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I was a lucky child. But I still didn’t feel like I belonged. I couldn’t relate to the people living around me, the kids I went to school with and sometimes even my family. Sandra Cisneros does a great job showcasing the feeling of being an outsider in your own community and the childish feeling of superiority that comes with being (or just feeling) different. I, too, thought I was better than those around me because I wanted more, because I dreamed bigger, because I couldn’t <i>wait</i> to get away from that suffocating place.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And I did. I packed my bags, I said goodbye, and now every once in awhile I get hit with ridiculous amounts of nostalgia because getting away doesn’t really mean <i>getting away</i>. It took me longer than it took Esperanza to figure that out. Who you are, where you’re from and who you’re related to will always be a part of you, whether you like it or not. You might as well embrace it.
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This novel was lovely and Esperanza was a fantastic character. An adolescent child who felt out of place, who knew what she wanted but was conscious of the fact that it would be a while before she could get it, and yet instead of letting that bring her down, she tried to make the best of her situation, tried to enjoy life. Another thing I enjoyed was the wide cast of characters; whether they showed up only once or had a recurring role, they helped give life to Esperanza’s world while portraying the issues and struggles of their community.
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It was a sweet, heartbreaking, delightful story and I thoroughly recommend it.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2IRiyeWmsM/VhbEWjq4tvI/AAAAAAAAAS4/brx3mkqoBZU/s1600/four-stars.png" /></span></div>Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-36162710601645692452016-01-23T11:46:00.000-06:002016-01-27T11:07:26.717-06:00Guest Book Review: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Blood-Meridian/9780330510943?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA7m13-_5Ggc8NZZlDEBuCVfCm5Z_BNrui4DidNNnHLMCCigaX7NCjvHi0im0SLoQmKpgQn-hFsXvkxgI4CMXpJZUElQnq_yrfdgcb_Uqzjmcf4Hv9H2TUgfC-KAj1x0nTGJjmV9iU16g/s200/image1.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hello, everyone!<br /><br />
As part of those new features <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/2016/01/2016-bookish-goals.html">I mentioned</a> I wanted to add to the blog a few weeks ago, I bring you: <b>Guest Reviews</b>! In which I make my husband write reviews about the books <i>he</i>'s reading and bring some variety into my little corner of the internet, since we read very different things most of the time.
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Without further ado, here's the first Guest Review of Joie des Livres!</span>
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<b style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;">Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy</b><br />
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by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/40997547">Eddie V</a>
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Cormac McCarthy doesn’t give a damn about your delicate sensibilities. He doesn’t give a damn about your idea of proper sentence structure, your limited vocabulary, whether you know who or if anyone is talking or if you even know what the hell is going on. In Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West, Cormac McCarthy spins a yarn so grisly and violent that none of your namby pamby "rules" matter. Yet, however horrible the events that come to pass, there is still a subtle beauty in the way that he describes the truly wild West and makes the reader ponder the purpose of our very existence.
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Blood Meridian is a fictional account of true events that took place in the late 1840s across parts of the American South West and Northern Mexico and it follows the never named kid as he finds himself riding with the legendary Glanton gang. The gang consists of real badasses with badass names like Toadvine and Bathcat, who are contracted by local governments to hunt down and scalp a tribe of Apache Indians that have been terrorizing small towns and villages. The Apache are described as "a horde from hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of christian reckoning" (p.55), so you can see how important the gang feels it is to wipe out their population from the face of the earth. The methods used for this wiping, however, are probably worse yet as we see gruesome scenes like of infants being swung "by the heels … and bashed their heads against the stones so that brains burst forth through the fontanel in a bloody spew" (p. 165). Lovely, right? However, the story isn’t really about cowboys versus Indians.
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The story isn’t really about good versus evil or right versus wrong, either; if anything it may be about something like evil versus slightly less evil, but evil nonetheless? Or is it even evil at all? Could it just be human nature regardless of what we may label as good or evil? This is what I believe the philosopher of the gang, Judge Holden, is explaining to us when he says things like "it makes no difference what men think of war. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone" (p.262). With thoughts like that, it’s the judge who serves as the true antagonist in this novel. There isn’t anything he doesn’t know or can’t do, literally; he’s fluent in every language, he’s an astronomer, he can lift anything, he can make gunpowder from scratch using only what he finds in the desert, he can lawyer his way out any legal situation, he's an expert in paleontology, botany, astronomy and astrology, and anything new he encounters he studies and jots down in his notebook. So, if he’s a 100% sure bet in anything and everything, we can only conclude that his take on good and evil is foolproof. "Moral law is an invention of mankind for the disenfranchisement of the powerful in favor of the weak;" (p. 263) he’s telling us that any kind of sense of morality we think we have is a lie to ourselves and deep down we’re all just vicious animals. This is what makes him the scariest motherfucker I’ve encountered in literature; because we will instinctively try to deny that as a crazy man’s notion but at the same time know it as true.
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But how does our "hero," the kid, respond to all of this? Is he our champion of moral fortitude or is he swayed by the Judge’s understanding? This dilemma is what makes this novel a masterpiece, in my opinion. The way McCarthy forces us, the readers, to question ourselves and our sense our morality in a world full of evil really injects us into and makes us an essential part of the story and of his art.
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This is probably the hardest I’ve ever worked on reading a book as it took me two back to back read-throughs of the book with a dictionary app by my side to even attempt an interpretation of the ideas Cormac McCarthy is trying to express in Blood Meridian, and I can honestly say I had the best time doing it. Also, I can see how this story may have influenced the making of the equally excellent "psychedelic western" film, Dead Man by Jim Jarmucsh. I am looking forward to reading more of McCarthy's works, but I feel that any book I read after this will have a hard time knocking this off the throne of being my "most favoritest book of all-time ever."
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iBWZzg49odc/VhbEWr9onXI/AAAAAAAAATc/kd8AsRXQYkY/s200/five-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-60466501841393709302016-01-20T13:26:00.000-06:002016-01-27T11:07:49.795-06:00Book Review: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/The-Library-at-Mount-Char-Scott-Hawkins/9780553418606?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb8eDaFm3YciovKDCMagedPKfHEFIA_FSaeaAoNKovpt4FTRcaApUU3KQxPgA8olXWdkppqsTzD0aLxrwrlPNrcLiMm0ym7KVfPg3ymhqmKeTFzSe0pNhpsZuVYMYKa0W8R5HMbUY-lUE/s640-Ic42/IMG_7270.JPG" title="buy from The Book Depository; FREE WORLDWIDE DELIVERY!" width="199" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This book is bananas!
<br /><br />I don’t even know where to <i>start</i> with this review because my mind is still reeling after finishing it over the weekend. Another book picked out for no reason other than the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3yl6au/the_rbooks_bookclub_selection_for_january_is_the/">/r/books bookclub</a> chose it as their January read. The synopsis alone was so compelling that I decided to join in on the fun and oh, am I glad that I did!
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This book is fantastic (both literally and figuratively)! It deals with elements of fantasy and horror and it is so engrossing, it’ll have you turning pages back and forth as you try to figure out what the hell is going on. I love it so much!
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The Library at Mount Char tells the story of a group of children who are adopted by a mysterious man they call “Father” after their suburban neighborhood gets destroyed and their parents are killed. They are raised in his library of all knowledge, thus becoming “Librarians”, with each kid having a particular subject or catalog they have to master<span style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px;">—</span>Medicine, War, Languages, Death, etc., and they are not allowed to wander outside the realm of their particular skills.
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The story begins a couple of decades after Adoption Day. Father is nowhere to be found and with his disappearance, a protective shield seems to have been cast around the Library, keeping the Librarians from entering their home. Now they must work together to find Father or devise a fight plan in the event that something has happened to him, all before word gets around that the Library (and with it, power over life, death and all creation) is unguarded and up for grabs.
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Carolyn, librarian of languages, sets out into the real world to seek help from regular Americans, setting in motion a plan that is bound to shake up the entire universe.
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There are no other words for this book other than <i>insane</i>. Although I suppose I could also call it inventive, unpredictable and brutal. And super confusing! At least for the first 100 pages. Scott Hawkins does not joke around throwing the reader into the story with little to no explanation of what’s going on, but he does a great job of diffusing any doubts through story progression and the occasional flashback. Normally, this kind of storytelling would annoy me and make me want to throw the book out the window, but it really worked for this particular story. Hawkins does not assume that you know and/or understand what’s going on; he’s purposefully letting you peek into this fantastic world he created before covering it up again, leaving you wondering if what you saw was for real or a trick of your imagination. He’s basically messing with your mind and laughing maniacally while doing it, probably.<br /><br />
It works, though! It puts you off enough to wonder if you’ll ever get what’s going on, but makes you so curious that you can’t help but keep reading, and the effort is worth it because once you start connecting the dots and it starts making sense, you’re in for the long haul. You just cannot put the book down!
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I thought the story itself was very original, definitely like nothing I had ever read before. It combines so many elements that you’d think wouldn’t work very well together, and pulls it off nicely. It’s a fantasy book with so much violence and blood and cruelty, but it’s also very heart-warming and uplifting at times. The writing is very simple, with pages filled with nothing but dialogue at times, but the story is so captivating and the plot so complicated already that it’s easy to overlook that. Besides, the complex characters Scott Hawkins creates and their development definitely make up for whatever might be lacking writing-wise.
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I really don’t want to talk too much about it because this book is hard to discuss without spoiling the hell out of it and that would be a disservice to anyone who hasn’t read it. The “the least you know about it, the better!” approach definitely applies to The Library at Mount Char! So go ahead and read it (you have to, it’s a must) and then come back so I can ramble for 500 more words about how much I love this book and the way Scott Hawkins was so careful with details and character progression, how the ending was so perfect and fitting and how I even loved the epilogue! Which didn’t even happen with Harry Potter!
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So yes, go read it and take your time. I doubt I’ll forget about this book any time soon.</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iBWZzg49odc/VhbEWr9onXI/AAAAAAAAATc/kd8AsRXQYkY/s200/five-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-15275589136672505472016-01-13T12:09:00.000-06:002016-01-27T11:07:53.078-06:00Book Review: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/Mr-Penumbrs-24-Hour-Bookstore-Robin-Sloan/9781250064554?a_aid=joiedeslivres" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ZaU1WQeI5NhGfsQTyVjtkZA4G-mv9hfHGfGXtnGHOziyHitsmPOoALwYst50vOt-NdNdePh-BX2X7hLl96leAiA67vgy6F1oYSIrSm4Oivd272US19u4e4xP2gLOKMIoV3pC69wfD-A/s200/image1.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I kinda, sorta already broke one of my Bookish Goals because I said I wanted to read more of the books I already owned, but then I went ahead and picked up two books from the library. How can anyone pass up a book called Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, though? The title makes it sound mysterious and fantastic and without even knowing what the book was about, I was already in love with this imaginary place and all the crazy happenings that probably took place in it, so of course I had to check it out.
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Oh, and also? <i>The cover glows in the dark</i>.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore tells the story of Clay Jannon, a web designer who, because of the recession, finds himself unemployed, broke and desperate. It’s this desperation that leads him to start working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a quirky little place located next to a strip club. One of the first odd things he notices about this place is the way it’s laid out</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #878787; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0.24px; line-height: 24px;">—</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the front looks just like any regular bookstore, but the back is lined with very tall shelves, filled with mysterious, bound books that he’s not allowed to look at, which he calls the “Wayback List”.
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The second odd thing he notices is the customers. Since he works the night shift the bookstore is always empty, but every once in awhile he gets these peculiar people coming into the store at all hours of the night asking to borrow specific books from the Wayback List. All of these people have some things in common: they all have a membership card (to what, exactly? Clay has no idea!), they never buy anything from the “normal” part of the store and they’re always in a rush.
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This makes Clay very curious. Who are these people and what is going on with those mysterious books in the back? At the insistence of one of his roommates, Clay ends up flipping through the books to find that they’re all written in some sort of code, which only manages to make him even more curious and adamant to uncover the mysterious going-ons of the 24-Hour Bookstore.
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And he does.
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What follows next is a mixture of puzzle solving, secret cults, ancient codes and the search for the key to immortality, paired up with a lot of technology talk and the cameo of a made up book series called the Dragon Song Chronicles.
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Overall, this was a very quick and entertaining read. The book is funny and very modern with its talks about the recession and Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, video chats and whatnot. It incorporates a lot of technology and uses the plot to touch up on a subject that comes up a lot these days: the old school ways of learning vs. the new, and it a way, it does a very good job at juxtaposing them to prove that they can reinforce each other and not negate one another. There’s still room for both, guys! Enough with the eBook killed the printed books star nonsense already!<br /><br />
I appreciated the use of technology throughout the book because it’s something very quotidian, but it's rare to see it addressed in books. Technology has become such an intrinsic part of our lives, it was fun to see it represented in this book as a resource</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to further along the plot! On the other hand, though, I could have done without so much Google talk. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore could have just as well be called “Google is paying me to write this book!” (DISCLAIMER: I have no idea what the relationship between Google and Robin Sloan is… I’m just </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">saying</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">) because you can’t go two pages without someone mentioning Google and at one point, they even use </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">all of Google’s technology</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> in an attempt to solve the puzzle. </span><br />
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My most favorite part about this book was the premise… and that’s about it. It was yet again a case of “great premise, terrible execution” because it seemed Sloan had so many great ideas, but instead of sitting down and developing them, he just decided to speed through them to get to the happily ever after ending and it was so frustrating! The overall plot was very convenient, every roadblock got easily bypassed by the main character; there’s no real struggle or any tension, and at no point do you feel like things aren’t going to work out because you come to expect that the author will find a very convenient solution to every problem.<br /><br />
It was like this puzzle was specifically made for the main character, and that every supporting character was created with a specific set of skills in mind to help solve every problem. His best friend Neel just happens to be a millionaire that can pay for long-distance trips and expensive New York hotel stays; he meets and starts dating Kat, who just so happens to work for Google and holds a high enough position to allow him to use Google technology in his quest; his roommate Mat happens to know the right sort of people who work at the right sort of places and can conveniently help Clay...
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You get where this is going. The word convenient has no meaning to me anymore.
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It was very disappointing being halfway done with the book and already knowing that things were going to work out, and also having a pretty good idea of what the moral of the story was going to be. There’s nothing keeping you on the edge of your seat and it makes me sad because there was so much potential! This is a very small book, but I would have gladly read 500+ pages of this if the author had taken the time to flesh out his characters more and added more tension and conflict to the quest.
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Don’t let my disappointment keep you from checking out this book if you’re interested, though! It was still entertaining and I had fun reading it when I took it for what it was and not for what it could have been. The premise alone makes up for it and there were a lot of elements of the book that I loved just because I’m a huge geek. The use of technology! Mysterious bookstores! Secret cults! I am all for it.
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And did I mention it glows in the dark?</span></div>
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<b>Rating:</b> <img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G01qD0xUdRU/VhbEYRLuWCI/AAAAAAAAATs/5w_psS8R43Q/s200/three-half-stars.png" /></span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-40869471063410700922016-01-09T15:33:00.000-06:002016-01-09T15:37:58.803-06:002016 Bookish Goals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We’re one week into 2016 (already!) and in that time, I set up my bookish resolutions for this year… and also broke them. So now I’ve decided to publish them here so y’all can hold me accountable when this year ends and I inevitably fail to do any of the things I’m about to list.
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Public shaming sometimes works!
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I’m also calling them goals now instead of resolutions because it sounds more like something to strive for and achieve and less like a chore that <i>has </i>to be done, and sometimes you gotta Jedi mind trick your own brain for things to work out! Or at least that’s what I’m tricking myself to believe...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2016 BOOKISH GOALS
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2016 I want to:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /> 1) <b>Read more:</b> Or I guess I want to read <i>as much</i> as I did last year. 2015 was a fluke because I found myself with a lot of free time, so I ended up reading more books than I had in a lifetime. I might not have that much free time this year, so the goal is to make some room for reading in whatever schedule I end up with. This won’t be too hard to accomplish because reading is the best!
<br /><br /> 2) <b>Make a dent on my TBR:</b> I haven’t counted them, but I’m sure I have over 50 unread books crowding my bookshelf right now (I went a little bit crazy book shopping last year, oops!) and I need to stop ignoring those in favor of shinier, newer purchases! So, no more new books until I catch up to those already waiting.
<br /><br /> 3) <b>Stick to the 100 pages rule:</b> This one’s kind of linked to the previous goal because my excitement for new books sometimes clouds my judgement and what might have sounded like an awesome book at first might not really interest me once I’m actually reading it, so I need to learn to let go and not feel guilty about it. If after 100 pages the book hasn’t managed to catch my interest, I should put it down (which is easier said than done!).<br /><br /> 4) <b>Diversify!:</b> This past year I mostly read fiction books, primarily written in English, and I basically stuck to genres I knew I loved. For 2016, I want to read books from around the world (especially from my country and the rest of Latin America), check out different genres and include more non-fiction and graphic novels. There’s so much to read out there, it’s kind of silly to stick to just one thing!
<br /><br /> 5) <b>Read more classics:</b> I wasn’t made to read a lot of classics when I was in high school, so there’s a huuuge list of them I still haven’t read. At first, I wasn’t very interested in classics, but after spending December reading a few of them, I’ve come around and feel I should give others a try. Maybe I won’t dedicate a whole month to classics again, but picking one up every once in awhile should do the trick!
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Okay, these next two aren’t exactly about reading, but they still count as bookish!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /> 6) <b>Keep an active blog:</b> I’ve been trying to post some new content at least once a week (usually on Tuesdays!) but since this is mainly a blog about book reviews and it takes me more than a week to read one book, that might not always be possible! So I might add a few new features, like the <a href="http://www.brokeandbookish.com/p/top-ten-tuesday-other-features.html">Top Ten Tuesday</a> hosted by The Broke and the Bookish or… something else. Any suggestions? I’d love to hear them!
<br /><br /> 7) <b>Go to the Texas Book Festival!:</b> I’ve gone to music festivals and Comic Cons and now I want to check a book fest off the bucket list, and since the Texas Book Fest is so close to home, it’s the perfect opportunity! I know this one isn’t so much a goal as something I really hope I get to do, but now that it’s out there, I gotta work for it!
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And that’s it! It’s a simple enough list, so let’s see how I do. If you made any bookish resolutions/goals, leave your lists in the comments, I’d love to check it out! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">P.S.: This blog will be back to its regular programming next week with a new book review.</span></div>
Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2025624672024916297.post-2426082687755037492015-12-31T10:21:00.001-06:002016-01-09T15:33:25.817-06:00Top 5 Reads of 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2015 was the year of getting back into reading! Unknowingly, it was the perfect year to start reading again because I found myself with a lot of free time and rounded up the year with <a href="http://joielivre.blogspot.com/p/2015.html">over 40 books</a>!<br /><br />
I had never read so many books!!!<br /><br />
It was such a fun experience, though! I revisited old favorites and discovered new authors, read some stories that were way overdue, picked up others that I never would have considered to read before, tried some classics and through it all, I had an amazing time!<br /><br />
Here's a small list of my most favorite reads of this year, in no particular order:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">TOP 5 BOOKS READ IN 2015</span></h3>
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1. Yes, Please by Amy Poehler.</b></i><br />
I <i>love </i>Amy Poehler, so of course this book is making the list. She's an amazing comedian, actress and just an overall awesome human being, and getting to delve a little deeper into her life and her comedy was enlightening and entertaining. Not to mention it was very refreshing to get a glimpse of how down-to-earth and straightforward she is. Yes, Please is filled with anecdotes from Amy's childhood and up to her most recent years, funny jokes and poems, endless advice and guest appearances from her closest friends. I loved this book so much that I'm currently re-reading it (by way of listening to the audiobook-- which has so many great features, too! It's a whole other experience) and laughing just as much as I did the first time. Can't recommend it enough!
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2. The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey.</b></i><br />
There's already a review on this book a few posts down, but here's a quick rundown of why it made this list: It's a very interesting take on a genre that might be considered overdone these days. It manages to catch your attention from the very beginning and holds it until the very end and the character development is fantastic. This book caught me by surprise because I had no idea what I was getting into, but I'm so glad I stumbled upon it at the library and brought it home with me!
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3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.</b></i><br />
You know a book is <i>really good</i> when it spoils the ending for you halfway through, yet holds your interest to the very end, and it can best be summarized by this quote: <i>"Everything was good. But it was awful, too."</i> Just go ahead and read it and know that your heart will hurt.
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4. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.</i></b><br />
There is a reason why Neil Gaiman is so beloved and respected in the fantasy genre community and this book is proof. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the perfect amount of mysterious and whimsical, keeping you on your toes the whole time and even though you might not get <i>it</i> at the end, it was all worth the ride. This is another book that I re-read by listening to the audiobook a couple of weeks after first reading the book and it made me fall in love with the story all over again. Neil Gaiman's narration of his own stories just adds an extra touch that makes them that bit more special and I highly recommend picking up the audiobook if you have the chance.
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5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.</i></b><br />
This was one of those "overdue" books that I had never gotten around to read, but I <i>knew</i> I was going to love because murder mysteries are my jam and I was not disappointed! This book touches on some very dark and messed up subjects and I was uncomfortable for half of it, but it was a compelling and overall fantastic read. It does start a bit slow, but once it gets into the swing of things, it's impossible to put down! (I finished it reading it during a weekend where I was at a music festival... Thank you, earplugs!) Now that some considerable amount of time has passed, I'm ready to plunge back into Lisbeth's world and I have no doubt that The Girl Who Played with Fire will make my top 5 of 2016!
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SPECIAL MENTION:</span> Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein.</i></b><br />
Also another book I've reviewed here before, but I felt weird leaving it out of this list because this book was very special. It surprised me how much I enjoyed it considering I didn't know much about Carrie and felt no connection to her, but it's just so well written and so honest that even if you have no idea who Carrie is, it makes you want to keep reading and know more.
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It was tough putting this list together because I truly enjoyed at least 90% of all the books I read, but I can't keep tweaking this or I'll be here forever. Goodbye 2015, you were a good year. Bring on 2016 and may it be filled with books and new adventures!</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">HAPPY NEW YEAR!</b>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">See y'all on the flip side!</span></div>
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Testhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11553348169865003105noreply@blogger.com4